


The Clock Strikes Six.

by theatergirl06



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Enjoy!, F/F, My Detective AU!!!!!, The Archive Warnings do not apply to every chapter!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23600311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theatergirl06/pseuds/theatergirl06
Summary: This is the prologue. It is literally set-up. Probably uninteresting because there are no Six characters in it. But it needs to exist for the sake of the story. So please bare with me! :)
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Catherine Parr, Anne of Cleves & Catherine Parr, Anne of Cleves/Katherine Howard, Catherine Parr & Jane Seymour, Catherine of Aragon & Catherine Parr, Katherine Howard & Catherine Parr
Comments: 138
Kudos: 174





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the prologue. It is literally set-up. Probably uninteresting because there are no Six characters in it. But it needs to exist for the sake of the story. So please bare with me! :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter:  
> Major (ish) character death, swearing, drugs.

Chloe Johnson was having a very bad day. She’d come from a meeting with Mr. Wilkins that morning, which was bad enough in the first place, because that man was the most egotistical person she’d ever met. Of course, just being in the same room as him hadn’t been the end of it, he’d yelled at her, told her she’d been irresponsible and that she was on probation.

_ Probation.  _ What a ridiculous notion. She was the best he had, and he knew that, but ever since she’d refused to go on dates with him, he’d kept threatening that she was going to lose her job. 

Then she’d gone for lunch with Maegan, which was supposed to be a calming affair, but of course Maegan, with her high-profile little job, had picked the fanciest restaurant in all of London, and Chloe had had to ask her to pay for her food, which was mortifying enough. But  _ then,  _ when she’d started talking about Mr. Wilkins and how much he completely and utterly annoyed her, Maegan kept talking about lawsuits and money that Chloe didn’t have. When Chloe tried to explain that she couldn’t afford the trouble of a lawsuit, Maegan got all up in her face about how “she was being bratty,” and “she deserved better.” Chloe had left the lunch in a huff and thrown her water in Maegan’s face, only to find out later that she’d been charged for her half of the meal. So  _ now  _ she would have to come up with the money for that. 

She’d thought her day couldn’t get any worse, but  _ then  _ she’d run into Jenna on the way back to her apartment, and of course that was the absolute last person she’d ever wanted to run into. Jenna had insisted on “showing her true culture” and dragging her to a ballet she could neither afford nor wanted to see. Jenna had of course been wonderful, reminding Chloe that she would never be as good as her downstairs neighbor. By the second act, she’d decided to take a nap, but of course had snored and spilled soda all over her seat, causing some very angry ushers to wake her up and drag her out of the theatre.

By that point, it was 6PM, and all Chloe wanted to do was go home. So she went home. But of course the day couldn’t end there.

Just outside her apartment, she ran into Oliver, her boyfriend. She tried to explain to him that she’d had a bad day and just wanted to go home and go to bed, but he’d claimed he had a whole special date planned. She didn’t want to say no to that. 

And then where did they go? They ended up at the  _ same damn restaurant  _ that she’d been to with Maegan just earlier that day, and of course the waiter had recognized her and spent the entire dinner bugging her about the hundred or so dollars she owed them for her half of her lunch. This made her irritable, and she spent the entire evening snapping at Oliver and being generally grumpy, which of course she hadn’t meant to do, but she’d hurt his feelings, and instead of apologizing like she’d meant to, she’d ended up running out of the restaurant for the second time that day. But of course, Oliver had given her her ride, so she’d had to walk the entire twenty blocks home.

Long story short, by the time she reached her apartment for the second time that day, it was 10PM, and all she was ready to do was fall into bed.

But there was a problem. The second she got to her apartment, something felt wrong. The shadows somehow seemed darker than usual, and the air colder. But she ignored it. She was too exhausted. So she fell into bed and fell asleep instantly.

Only minutes later, she felt a blast of cold air as someone yanked the covers off of her body. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, a hand slapped itself roughly over her mouth. She swung her arms, but another hand (probably from the same person), grabbed them both. A knee hit her in the head, and her body went limp. 

Her attacker seized the opportunity and sharply flung her arms behind her, tying them to the bed. It was then that she realized whoever was tying her up was wearing gloves. 

Oh shit.

Chloe squinted in the darkness and tried to identify her attacker. Her blurry vision cleared just for a second, and suddenly, everything made sense. 

“It’s you.”

“Of course it’s me.”

“Please don’t do this.”

“There’s nothing you can say to stop me.”

“I said I was sorry for what I did!”

“Sorry can  _ never  _ make up for what you did to me. You  _ ruined  _ me.” 

“That doesn’t mean I deserve to die!”

“Shut the fuck up and hold still.”

And Chloe was helpless, couldn’t move, couldn’t scream as her attacker, her enemy, forced her mouth open and poured in a bunch of pills.

_ So it would look like a suicide. _

Chloe felt her stomach churn. Her vision blurred. 

God, she wished she’d sued Mr. Wilkins. She wished she’d done a lot of things. 

The room spun.

And the world went dark. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: Swearing, mentions of murder.

Another sleepless night. By this time, she had lost track. The nightmares had kept her up again, and there was nothing she could do about it. Normally she would’ve have grabbed a cup of coffee and taken a look at her latest case, but she hadn’t had any new cases in months, and her apartment was starting to show it.

After she’d blown the last case, the police hadn’t meant to make her life hell, but they had. She’d needed the money from that case, and when she hadn’t gotten it, things had just spiraled downhill. She hadn’t been able to find more cases. People had heard about her big failure with the last one, and nobody wanted a failure working on their cases. She sure as hell couldn’t find work anywhere else. She’d tried for about a week, before realizing that her prickly nature and the bags under her eyes did her no favors in job interviews.

Without money, she could only last a few months. That was the downside of the work she did. No salary.

She’d lasted those few months, but then they had ended. She was lucky she owned her apartment, or she would’ve had to leave, but what was the use of an apartment where the electricity was give-or-take and the water only worked half the time and was always cold?

So instead of working on a case, she’d sat at her window and thought about how her life had gone wrong. Not the best way to spend a night, but at this point, when the sky was nearly always grey and the wind cold, what choice did she have?

As she sipped her coffee, trying her best to wake herself up, or at least pretend she was awake so she wouldn’t have to live with spending her seventh day in a row in complete exhaustion, she nearly fell out of her chair when her desk phone rang. This was not the cellphone she could barely afford service for and never used because she didn’t like talking to people, no, this was her desk phone. The one she used for jobs.

“Fuck!” she groaned as the coffee spilled all over her shirt. She’d gotten jumpy in the past ten months. She was used to having almost no contact with anyone. But as low as she sunk, she was still a private eye. And a private eye couldn’t be jumpy. 

Trying her best to use some spare papers to dry off her shirt, she picked up the phone.

“The hell do you want?”

“We discussed this. You don’t answer the phone that way. I could’ve been a client.”

She groaned. She did  _ not  _ want to talk to her old boss, especially not after the second night in a row with two hours of sleep.

“I don’t get clients anymore, thanks to you.”

“You know perfectly well that was your own fault for blowing that case.” 

“I could’ve gotten it right if I had more time. I  _ needed  _ that money. You know that.”

“I want to meet with you.”

Her eyebrows shot straight up. Damn it. She really needed to work on being less jumpy. 

“Unless you have more cases for me, I don’t want to see you, Aragon.” She began to hang up, but the voice coming from the phone stopped her. 

“I told you you could call me Catherine.”

“Yeah, well that was before you lost me my job, my electricity, and my running water.”

There was a pause.

“It was never my intention to…”

“Save your pity for someone who wants it. Unless you have another case for me, I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I have a way for you to  _ get  _ more cases.”

She froze, phone in hand.

“I know you need the money, Cathy.”

“ _ Don’t  _ call me Cathy.”

“You called me Aragon.”

Cathy groaned. Why had she picked up the phone?

“Look, Cathy. You need help. But so do we. I think we can help each other.”

Cathy laughed. “You’re about ten months too late.”

Aragon sighed over the phone. “I know you feel that way, Cathy. But please just meet with me. Half an hour is all I’m asking for.”

Cathy sighed. This was the last thing she wanted to do. But it meant more cases. Which meant money. Money that she needed. And it was only half an hour.

“Fine. But you’re coming here.”

Ten minutes later, Catherine Parr was roughly shaken awake, not even having realized she’d fallen asleep at her desk the second she hung up the phone. She looked up to see a very irritated Catherine Aragon standing above her.

“You’re early.”

“You’re a complete mess. So is your apartment.”

“You’re the one who wanted to meet with me.”

“I expected to be meeting inside an office.”

“This  _ is  _ my office. You know that.”   
“It  _ looks  _ like a filthy apartment.”

“Well, what’s the point of keeping it neat if I don’t have any more clients because my boss decided to fuck up my entire life, huh?”

“Look, Cathy, I don’t love working with you, either, so I’ll cut right to the chase. You’re good, Cathy, and we’re getting an overload of cases down at the station. We need another detective, and we’d pay you.”

Cathy raised her eyebrows. “What’s the catch?”

“Look, Parr…”

“Oh, so it’s Parr now?”

“Look, last time you had a case, you stretched yourself too thin trying to solve it. Every Time I saw you, you had circles under your eyes constantly, and you couldn’t focus on anything. That’s why I think you messed up the case so bad and put everyone in danger.”

“It wasn’t too bad.”

“Not only did you accuse the wrong man, but you fainted in the middle of the job.”

“Alright, maybe it...was. But you didn’t have to take all my money away.”

Catherine sighed. “The point is, if you hadn’t stretched yourself too thin, maybe you wouldn’t have screwed it up so bad. I’ll take you back. I’ll give you a case. But you need to hire an assistant.”

Cathy laughed. “And why the hell would I want to work for you again?”

Catherine sighed again, and Cathy was reminded of just how much she hated her ex-boss’s habit of sighing all the time. “Because you need the money. We won’t interfere with you. We’ll give you a case, we’ll let you solve it completely on your own, as long as you don’t do anything _illegal._ ” At this, Catherine gave the private eye a pointed stare. “All we ask is that you hire an assistant.”

“I work alone.”

“Well then, you can kiss your money goodbye.”

Cathy leaned forward over the desk, placing her chin on her palms. “Exactly how much money are we talking about?”

Catherine cocked her head. “Is money really all you care about?”

“What else would I care about?”

“I don’t know. Whatever you cared about before you blew that case.”

“That case was special.” 

“Either way, you used to be different. You used to be thoughtful and smart and kind. You used to be an introvert and a loner, but Cathy, you had friends.”

“Well, a little something happened called I lost absolutely all my money.”

“You’ve changed, Cathy. You weren’t always this mean.”

“You’re one to talk about mean.”

“I know. But part of what happened to you is your own damn fault, so deal with it.”

“Just talk to me about the money.”

“We’ll give you your old per-case fee back, plus 25%.”

“Like you’d do that.”

“You’re a valuable asset, Cathy. We want to see you out there, helping protect people.”

“I don’t protect people. I solve problems.”

“Whatever you want to call it. We’ll pay you.”

Cathy sighed as she leaned back in her chair.

“You just have to hire an assistant first.”

By the following afternoon, she was waiting on ten possible candidates for assistants. This afternoon was going to be absolute hell. At Catherine’s urging, she’d posted an internet ad for a job opening the previous morning, but she suspected Catherine and she had different definitions of “assistant.”

She’d put up an ad for a secretary, but that was not at all what she had in mind.

The more she’d thought about it, the more she’d actually found she somewhat liked the idea of having a partner in crime. Someone who could do all the less desirable parts of her job. She could solve the mystery, and whoever she hired would sort her papers and gather information in whatever way possible.

Many of those ways were not categorized under “secretary.” Which was why she had doubts about being able to find anyone competent. Life alone was much easier. 

Whoever she hired had to be more than just a paper-sorter. This person had to be quick-witted, observant, and, most importantly, able to follow directions. 

With her luck, there wasn’t a person like that living in the whole world, let alone in the group of ten that had answered her ad. But she figured she wasn’t going to find out until she started. More importantly, the sooner she started, the sooner this would be over, and she could go to the police and tell them that sorry, she hadn’t been able to find an assistant, that she would  _ just have  _ to work alone _. _

_ So,  _ she thought,  _ let the games begin.  _

The first three were all women who looked like they had been born right around 1512. They all moved at the speed of snails and had to ask her to repeat everything she said at least three times.

The fourth candidate was about ten feet tall and had a voice about as booming as a frog with a bullhorn. He would attract far too much attention if he ever had to do any investigating. 

God, these options were all horrible.

The fifth candidate looked to be about Cathy’s age, a tad younger. She had glossy black hair and her body was about half as wide as a pencil. She was wearing black denim shorts that barely covered her ass and a neon yellow crop top. She stared at Cathy with a bored look in her eyes and blew a bubble with her bubblegum. 

“All right. Get out.”

Only five candidates in, and Cathy was ready to slump down on her desk and fall asleep. These people were so far from what she was looking for, how could she find something even close?

She desperately didn’t want this.

But she needed the money. 

The sixth candidate was so unobservant she forgot Cathy was there for a few minutes.

The seventh wouldn’t stop talking in an annoying, high-pitched tone.

The eighth kept asking about the last case. She was pretty sure she was a reporter and not an actual candidate. 

The ninth heard Cathy say the word “murder” and ran straight out of the room. 

By the time the tenth was ready to come in, all Cathy wanted was for these interviews to end. She was just going to find the first thing she didn’t like about this candidate and send her away.

A timid knock came at the door, and a head poked in. 

“Hello, I’m looking for a Catherine Parr. Is this the right place?”

Cathy leaned back in her chair. “As right as you can get.”

The young woman tentatively walked into the room, giving Cathy a chance to fully look her over. She had long hair, naturally brown, but much of it was dyed pink, which suited her well. She was short, not particularly thin or fat, but seemed not to take up much space because of her height. Despite all of these things, there was something about her that was absolutely gorgeous. She wouldn’t completely blend in in a room, but if someone was asked why they’d noticed her, they wouldn’t quite be able to say exactly why. 

“Name?”

“Katherine Howard, ma’am.”

“That would be a problem.”

“You can call me Kat if you want to.”

“All right, all right. So tell me, Kat, why do you want this job?”

Kat sighed, looking uncomfortable. “My family, they, uh...let’s just say I don’t live with them anymore. I found a pretty nice apartment, but I need a job. Any job, really.”

Cathy raised her eyebrows. “ _ Any  _ job?”

Kat seemed to stiffen in her chair. “Within reason?”

“Is that a  _ question _ ?”

“No?”

Cathy laughed. This girl clearly had problems with confidence. She was timid, and almost definitely had no backbone at all. But why not give her a little trouble? It would add some interest to her day.

“So, Kat, I’m a detective. How do you feel about murders?”   
She expected her to turn and flee like the candidate before her, but instead, Kat’s spine straightened up, and she looked slightly...defensive.

“I mean, murders are awful, of course…”

“Could you handle one?”

Kat turned very red, but there was also some sort of spike in her eyes. “I mean, I can’t say for sure, but...I think so. My life hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows.”

Cathy smiled. There was something odd about this woman. Not in the “puzzle fun” sort of way, but the “not boring” sort of way. On the surface, she seemed like she was scared of everything, but Cathy sensed something underneath, a surprising strength within her. She very clearly hadn’t found it yet, but if Cathy could figure out how to bring it out, she could prove very useful. 

What was she  _ thinking _ ? She didn’t  _ want _ an assistant, and certainly not one she needed to work with or  _ on.  _

She cleared her throat. “I...just don’t think you’re right for this job. You can go now.”

Kat looked a bit surprised and disappointed. “Oh. All right.”

As she left the room, she turned and cocked her head up at Cathy. “You know, you should try deep breathing for your nightmares.”

Cathy jerked her head up from the desk. “What? How did you know about…”

Kat blushed, looking pleased with herself and embarrassed at the same time. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to overstep. I was only trying to help. But...it was sort of obvious to me. You clearly haven’t slept in awhile, and your sheets over there are covered in sweat stains. Considering this apartment has barely any heat and it’s the middle of winter, I figured they were from nightmares. Based on the amount of coffee you keep, you seem like a person who doesn’t sleep a lot. I just...figured.”

Cathy gave the young woman a bemused look. An observant assistant, no matter how timid, might prove useful. And if she hired her, she could get the police off her back  _ and  _ get her money.

“Katherine Howard, you’re hired. You start the day after tomorrow. Be here at 8AM. I’ll have a desk set up for you. Don’t be late.”

Kat smiled. “Really? Thank you so much!”

“Don’t make me regret it.”

Kat grinned widely as she walked out the door, a bounce in her step. Cathy watched her new secretary leave, and cocked her head as she heard the building’s door shut. 

This could be interesting. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Mentions of drugs, murder, and dead bodies.

7AM and she had made no progress. Her stupid new assistant would be here in an hour, and she hadn’t made one step towards turning her little wooden coffee table into a desk for the young woman. 

It wasn’t that she was lazy. She’d never been lazy. But ever since Catherine’s visit, she’d been in a state of...well, she supposed there wasn’t a name for it. A state of being trapped inside your own head, unable to escape because the same thoughts keep plaguing you over and over again. 

All Cathy had done was lie on her back, stare at the ceiling, and think. About what it would mean to have an assistant. What it would be like to work with this strange new woman. About why she hadn’t worked at all for the past ten months. About what had happened last March. About where it had all gone wrong.

She hadn’t even known how much time had passed until there was a sharp knock at her door and suddenly Catherine was standing directly above her, hands on her hips and looking pissed off.

“Cathy.”

Cathy groaned and forced herself up. “What?”

“Isn’t your new assistant starting an hour from now?”

“Yeah. So?”

“Weren’t you going to set up for her?”

“I did. I figured she could work on that blank patch of floor over there.”

“Cathy. Come on. She’s an assistant, not a slave. You have to give her humane working conditions.”

“Not always an option. She’s observant, she probably knew what she was getting into.”

“I wasn’t even there, but I’m positive you didn’t tell her everything.”

“She knows everything she needs to know.”

Catherine sighed. “Either way, you need to give her a better space than a two foot patch of floor.”

Cathy groaned, rubbing her aching head. “Why are you here, anyway? I don’t remember inviting you.”

Catherine yanked her up onto her feet. As usual, the police chief looked like she’d stepped straight out of a magazine. Sleek dress with sunflowers printed on it. Leather jacket. Gun strapped to her waist. Though most police chiefs Cathy had run into tended to wear black and deep blue, and pants. Catherine was the only one she had ever met who ever wore dresses and bright colors, but make no mistake, the woman was twice as effective, and she’d be sure to remind you of that fact if you were ever to forget it. 

“As a matter of fact, I came here to give you a case. But I won’t give it to you if you won’t give your new assistant some fair working conditions and a desk.”

Cathy sighed as she began kicking junk off the table. That shirt she never wore. A stack of bills she hadn’t paid. A coffee cup from Starbucks, way back from a time when she’d been able to afford fancy coffees from Starbucks. A plastic fork covered in mold. Catherine made a face as she looked at the mess.

“When was the last time you cleaned this place?”

“You know, it’s funny, about ten months ago people stopped coming here. I stopped pretending they were.”

Catherine planted her foot and put her hands on her hips in the “I’m the boss” sort of way she posed in so often. “Well, Cathy, people are coming now. You’re getting a secretary. My people are going to come in sometimes, because I’m sure you’re going to want to yell at us. Suspects and witnesses are going to be coming in and out. You need to clean this place up.”

Half an hour later, the apartment looked...slightly less disastrous. The piles of trash and mold and clothing were gone from the floor. The whole place was still covered in dust and spiderwebs, but there was a desk. 

Cathy was ready to fall asleep at her own desk by the time they finished, but the file in front of her face reminded her that it was only 7:45AM. She rested her head on her hands, very eager to get Catherine out of her apartment. “What’s the deal with this one?” 

“Chloe Johnson. Aged 28. Died of a drug overdose in her apartment.”

“And I can help...how?”

“I’m not so sure this is a suicide. The body was found with odd blisters on the wrists. But there’s not enough evidence to make a police case. Everyone but me is convinced it’s a suicide.”

“So you need a PI.”

“I don’t just need a PI. I need a good PI.”

“One who’s still getting paid.”

Catherine sighed. “One day, and I hope for the sake of my sanity that that day comes soon, you’ll find something to focus on other than money.”

Cathy smirked and sipped her coffee. “I have no idea  _ what  _ that would be.”

Catherine sighed and slapped the rest of the file on the table. “This should be everything you need. Your secretary will be here in five minutes, so I’m gonna head back to the station. Call if you want something, but I will almost definitely say no.”

“Before you go, send in Kat,” said Cathy, leaning back and taking a sip of her (third? fourth?) cup of coffee. 

Catherine looked at her watch. “But she’s not supposed to be here for another eight minutes.”

Cathy snickered. “If she’d anything like I think she is, she was here twenty minutes early and is waiting outside that door just so she can come in exactly at eight.” 

Catherine stared at her for a second, then laughed. “You always were good, Cathy. Maybe having you around again won’t be so horrible after all.” And with that, she turned on her (very high) heel, and left.

A second later, Kat poked her head around the door. “Hi? That woman who I’ve never met before said to come in.” 

Cathy forced herself out of her seat. “That’s right. Come on in.”

Kat held out a cup tentatively, as though it was burning her fingers. “I...brought you a coffee?”

Cathy glanced at the cup. Starbucks.    
She turned her back to the young woman and stared at the murder file sitting on her desk. “I don’t need your pity coffee.”

Even without seeing her face, Cathy could tell her new assistant was completely bewildered. “I...I didn’t mean...I just meant…I’m sorry.”

Cathy groaned. This girl had potential, but she was far from what Cathy needed. “Look, kid…”

“Please don’t call me that.”   
“I’ll call you whatever I want. Look, this isn’t a normal secretary job like you’re used to.”

“Actually, I’ve...never been a secretary before.”   
“Well, then, maybe it’ll be easier. For this job, you’re going to need your wits, some common sense, and a whole lot of nerve. For starters, you need to stop pausing when you say things.”

“I can’t...I just…”

“What did I just say?”

Cathy could feel the waves of frustration coming off of Kat, and sighed. She wanted to toughen the woman up a bit, but...well, it  _ was  _ only her first day. She spun around and grabbed the coffee out of Kat’s hand, trying to speak in a...slightly less harsh tone. What was the point of fighting with your assistant, anyway?

“I want you to take a look at this murder file and tell me what you see.”

Kat poked her head over the taller woman’s shoulder and grabbed the file, eyes moving quickly over the words.  _ A fast reader,  _ thought Cathy.  _ That could come in handy.  _

“Well? What do you think?”

“There’s...there’s not a lot in here, is there?”

Cathy smiled. So there  _ was  _ hope after all. “Exactly. And that’s what makes a good case, because it means there’s a lot to find out. It means we’re a long way from any dead ends.” Seeing her assistant’s excited expression, she decided to throw her a bone. “I want you to use your phone to try and find out as much about Chloe Johnson as you can. I’ll use the laptop.” 

Kat enthusiastically bounced across the room and plopped down at her makeshift desk, which was really just a coffee table.    
“Hey,” said Cathy, taking a sip of her coffee. “Welcome.”

Kat smiled as she bent over her work, but Cathy heard her mutter something when she thought she wasn’t listening. “So she has a heart after all.”

Cathy smiled and bent over the laptop, sipping the coffee. It was sweeter than she was used to.

Four hours later, neither of them had found anything. There were just too many Chloe Johnsons in London for the internet to be any help at all. After much frustration and hair pulling, Cathy abruptly shot up out of her seat.

“Kat, I hope you brought your coat.”

Kat stood up from the table, phone still in hand. “Yeah, why?”

Cathy smirked and began to walk out of the apartment. It was the first time she’d left in, well...a long time. It felt good. 

“We’re taking a little field trip.”

Kat struggled to keep up with the detective’s fast pace as they descended the stairs and stepped out onto the streets. “Where are we going?”

Cathy’s eyes glinted. “Just a little field trip to the morgue. You up for it?”

Kat grinned. “I…” seeing the look from Cathy, she stopped. “I guess I’ll find out.”

Cathy smirked at her assistant. A smirk, never a smile. A smile was dangerous. “That was the right answer.”

“There’s a right answer?”

“Only with me, kid. Are you coming or not?”

Kat’s face was flushed with excitement. “Let’s see some bodies, then.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Corpses, swearing, mentions of attempted suicide.  
> This chapter features some very special guests!

After a long and crowded bus ride that reminded Cathy of why she never rode the bus, the detective was standing outside the morgue, a very nervous Kat standing next to her. She swore she could see her assistant’s entire body shaking, although that may have just been from her sugar-filled coffee. 

Cathy smirked. Well, if Kat wasn’t going to be tough enough, she was about to find out. They could go from there.

They walked inside the building and up to the desk where a short blonde woman was sitting, distractedly shuffling papers as Cathy tapped on her desk.    
“Hi, can I help you?” She was still moving her hands nervously as she talked, giving Cathy the sense that she was a bit of an anxious person, but an extrovert, as she was smiling genuinely at the sight of people.

“We need to look at a dead body.”

The woman laughed nervously. “Well, you need a permit to look at the bodies. Do you have a permit?”

Cathy groaned inwardly. She was used to working around the law, but of course in the last 10 months, she’d forgotten. Of course the right thing would’ve been to send Kat in and have her converse with the woman while she slipped in, out of view. 

But of course, she hadn’t done that. 

Apparently, though, Kat had noticed the tiny glint of annoyance in Cathy’s eyes and was quicker on her feet than Cathy had thought.

“What’s your name?”

The blonde woman smiled. “I’m Heather.”   
Kat smiled and leaned forward on the desk. It struck Cathy how much the two women were alike. Same height, roughly the same body shape, and similar vibes of nervousness mixed with kindness and compassion.    
“I’m Katherine.”

“That’s such a pretty name.”

“Aaw, thank you! You have a pretty name, too.”

Cathy rolled her eyes. All the sweetness was making her sick. Maybe Kat wasn’t being intuitive, just annoyingly nice.

“So, how long have you been working here?”

“Actually, my friends and I are just here for a few months.”

“Oh, that’s so lovely. This seems like a really interesting job.”   
“It is. Not really my cup of tea, but my friends are here.”

“It’s so sweet that you’re with your friends.”

All right, that was enough. 

“Let’s cut to the chase, blondie. I need to see that body. You gonna help me or not?”

Heather’s face turned bright red with embarrassment. Kat looked mortified, mouthing “sorry!” to the nervous woman.

“I...I’m sorry, I can’t help you. You need a permit to see the bodies.”

Cathy leaned forward over the desk, placing her hands on the woman’s wrists, annoyed. She may be grumpy, but she wasn’t a mean person. She didn’t like using intimidation on anyone unless they were dangerous, and this woman clearly wouldn’t hurt a fly. But she had no choice.

“Look, Heather. You have  _ very  _ pretty eyes. But I can change that. I can use that scalpel sitting on the end of the desk to slice through those pretty eyes and make it so that you can’t see  _ anything _ , let alone your pretty little scarred reflection.” Heather’s hand reached for the scalpel, but Cathy was faster, snatching it up and away from the secretary. 

The woman trembled in her seat. Beside her, Kat’s mouth had dropped open in shock and fear. Her eyes were filling with tears. God, she was a piece of work. 

The woman working on the other side of the room, this one dark skinned and dark haired, walked across the room and placed one hand on her hip and the other hand on Heather’s shoulder.

“Excuse me, what did you just say to my friend?”

She had a look of fierce protectiveness in her eyes, and Cathy got the sense that she wouldn’t be quite as easy to threaten as Heather.

By this point, Kat’s face was about as red as a tomato. “I’m so, so sorry. She...uh, didn’t sleep very well last night, I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”

Cathy shot an icy glare at her assistant. Kat’s job was to help her out, not try to “make up” for the things Cathy did that she didn’t like. 

The second woman shot Cathy an icy glare and rolled her eyes.  _ Introvert,  _ thought the detective.  _ For sure. _

“Well, that doesn’t change the fact that you need a permit.”

Cathy sighed. Time to change tactics.

“Look...I’m sorry, what was your name?”

“Heather.”

Cathy couldn’t help it. A laugh escaped her lips.

The blonde woman smiled. “Yeah, I know, we’re both named Heather. You can call me Heather M and her Heather D if that makes things easier.”

Kat grinned. “Yeah, that’ll help.” 

Cathy leaned backwards, running her hands through her hair. Time to play a slightly different game.

“Look, I know we don’t have a permit, it’s just...my cousin…” she let tears spill into her eyes. Beside her, Kat’s eyes narrowed, and she threw her hands up over her face to cover her expression of irritation. “My cousin died recently, and she’s here, and I didn’t have a permit to see her, but I didn’t get to see her before she...she…” she burst into sobs, thankful that her acting skills seemed not to have left her over the past 10 months. 

Heather M raced around the table and wrapped her arms around the sobbing detective. Cathy tried her best not to flinch away from the hug, and over Heather’s shoulder, she saw Kat trying (and failing) to fake cry, and Heather D trying not to roll her eyes. 

She broke away from the blonde woman’s hug and wiped the tears from her eyes, looking straight at Heather D. She wasn’t stupid, she knew the woman with the green streak in her hair was the one she needed to convince. 

“Look, I’m so sorry for what I said to your friend earlier. It’s just...my cousin and I…we were... _ so, so  _ close!” Her eyes locked on the book on the woman’s desk, and she took a guess. “We...when we were little, we used to read  _ Moby Dick  _ together and quote it. I...I just miss her so much!”

She hid her smile as she saw the less nervous women’s face soften slightly. She was finally getting somewhere. 

“She’s lying.”

Cathy and Kat whirled around and saw a third woman standing on the other side of the room. Tall and imposing with long blonde hair, red lipstick, and a red scrunchie that should have looked odd with her white lab coat, but somehow made her look even more regal. She was tall enough that she could put one hand on her hip and curl the other around the top of the doorframe. Slowly, she walked towards them, high heeled boots clicking on the floor. 

She leaned over and put her face right in front of Cathy’s. The private eye wasn’t fazed. She knew the woman was only leaning down on her to make her feel small. It was a classic technique, often used by people who had been bullies in high school. However, she could feel Kat trembling next to her. The girl definitely needed to go and get some self esteem. 

“You’ve never known a dead person in your life.” 

Cathy ignored the sting of the words on her heart, and stared the taller woman right in the eyes. 

“And what’s  _ your _ name?”

The woman leaned back and placed her hands on her hips. “ _ You  _ don’t get to know that.”

Heather D rolled her eyes. “Oh, cut the dramatics.” She glanced at Cathy. “Her name is Heather.”

This time Cathy couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. 

The woman in read...Heather...rolled her eyes and stuck out her leg. She posed a lot, which meant she needed attention to feel validated, probably because she thought she was unworthy of real love. That meant Cathy knew just how to play her. 

Kat, on the other hand, was smiling pleasantly, a trait Cathy had learned to expect from her, even in the short amount of time they’d known one another. 

“Is there something we can call you that makes it less confusing?”

Heather D gently squeezed the taller woman’s hand and smiled lightly, the first genuine smile Cathy had seen from her. “You can call her Heather C. Or, if you want, you can just call her a bitch.”

Heather C smirked. “Oh, you know you love me.”

“Mmmhmm, not as much as you love me.”

“Please. You’re a snarky little diva.”

“Oh, you wanna talk about divas?”

Cathy almost burst out laughing. They were a couple. And a hilarious one at that. 

Heather H plopped her head on top of Heather D’s and looked at Cathy, smile disappearing and replaced instantly by a look of fierceness and anger.

“But seriously, what the  _ hell’s  _ your excuse for trying to trick my girlfriend.” 

Heather M looked offended. “What am I, chopped liver?”

Heather D smirked from her position under Heather C’s head. “Babe, we love you. But you’re taken, so we don’t have to worry about your adorable little fuzzy feelings.”

Heather M turned bright pink. “I have real feelings!”

While she and Heather D bickered, Cathy cocked her head and began to analyze Heather C. What could she use to crack her open, break her down? She seemed confident, but that kind of confidence often covered a dark past. What could she use to pull that out?

And suddenly, it came to her.

Cathy cleared her throat, and the room went silent.   
“Can I have a word with Heather C alone?”

Heather C crossed her arms over her chest. “Sure. We can go outside. Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll only fall down the steps.”

Cathy smirked and followed the tall woman out the doors.

The second they got to the steps, Heather repositioned herself so that she was standing a step above Cathy. Typical. But that wasn’t going to stop her. She leaned up and stared straight into Heather’s eyes.

“I know what you did.”

She didn’t, of course, but anyone with that much of a facade was hiding something. 

The reaction was priceless. Heather’s confidence seemed to crack, and little bits of fear seeped through right before Cathy’s eyes. She leaned forward, hair spilling over her shoulders.

“What the fuck do you want?”

Cathy smirked. “I want to look at one of your bodies. Simple enough.”

Heather sighed, leaning back and massaging her head, looking troubled. “Fine. You can look at one of the damn bodies. Just...don’t tell Heather.”

It didn’t take Cathy’s detective skills to know which Heather she was talking about. “Which part?” She did have to admit she was curious.

Heather blushed. “You know...the thing about me when I was in high school. Drinking drain cleaner, trying to kill myself...she’d see me in a completely different light. It could ruin everything.” She said all this with her arms crossed over her chest, as though trying to protect herself.

Cathy grinned. “I won’t tell a soul.”

They re-entered the building to find Kat and Heather M laughing about something or other (Cathy didn’t know and, to be honest, she didn’t particularly care), and Heather D sitting on the edge of the desk with her nose buried in a book. 

Heather C placed one hand on her hip and the other on the desk (Cathy did wonder if she’d  _ ever  _ stop posing).

“VERONICA!”

An annoyed looking woman wearing a lab coat and a blue shirt with messy brown hair that flew all over the place emerged, eyes on a cell phone.

“God Heather, do you have to yell like that? You know I can hear.”

Heather D looked up from her book. “These women want to see a body.”

The new woman...Veronica...glanced over at them.

“Hello!” said Kat.

Veronica smiled. “Hi. I’m Veronica. I basically make sure these three don’t burn this place down.”

Heather M grinned and wrapped Veronica in a hug “And we love her for it.

Heather C rolled her eyes. “And you think  _ we’re  _ too affectionate?”

Veronica smiled. “What can I say? Girls in love.” She grinned. “Anyway, follow me to the dead bodies.”

Kat lingered for a moment by the door before Cathy dragged her down the dark hallway after Veronica. After passing a few doors, they entered a white room, where a body was laying on a table under a cloth. Veronica pulled the fabric back to reveal a corpse with dark hair and a tired-looking face.

Kat gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. Veronica smiled as she shuffled around at a desk on the other side of the room. “First time with a corpse?”

Cathy smirked. She liked Veronica’s snarky nature, and she had the feeling she’d be a good detective. “You don’t say.”

Kat was frozen in the doorframe, staring at the body’s face. Cathy nudged her, but she didn’t budge. Oh well. She  _ supposed  _ a morgue  _ might  _ not be the best place to take a new assistant on her first day. 

“Can I take a look at the wrists?”

“Sure.”

Veronica pulled back the blanket to reveal, sure enough, two wrists covered in cuts and blisters. Cathy leaned closer and stared at them. She leaned back. She leaned closer again.

She leaned over and whispered into Kat’s ear. “We’ve just confirmed that this is not a suicide.”

Kat started out of her shock, mouth dropping open. “How did you know?”

Cathy smirked. “See those blisters on half of each wrist? Those are exactly the kinds of blisters made by ropes. I’ve seen them a million times.”

Kat whipped a pen and a notepad out of her purse and began scribbling frantically. “So we know something?”

“Yeah, Kat. We do.”

As if on cue, Cathy heard her phone ping inside of her pocket. She took it out, read it, and felt a smile spread across her face. Not quite genuine (she would never), but close.

She’d forgotten how exciting cases could be.

She slid the phone back into her purse and grabbed Kat’s hand, pulling her out.

“All right, let’s go!”

“Wha...um...thank you, Veronica!”

Cathy continued dragging her down the hall.

“Can’t you walk faster?

“Well stop pulling on my arm then!”

Into the lobby and out the doors.

“Thanks Heather! And...uh, Heather and Heather!”

The second they were on the steps, Cathy let go of Kat’s arm and began walking down the sidewalk at an even faster pace. Kat had to run to keep up.

“What is going on?”

Cathy turned to face her assistant.

“They just found Chloe Johnson’s cell phone.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No TWs for this chapter!

Of course it was two hours before they even arrived at the police station. Despite Kat’s best efforts to use her GPS to find the quickest route, they hadn’t anticipated the bus breaking down or the traffic jam the second bus had encountered.  _ It would have been faster just to walk _ , thought Cathy.  _ Then again,  _ she pondered,  _ maybe not with those heels Kat’s wearing. Honestly, what is the point of shoes that are that impractical? _

Either way, Cathy was very very grumpy by the time they’d arrived at the police station. She was in no mood for any sort of delay. 

In contrast, Kat seemed, well, cheerful compared to any normal person, but Kat seemed to naturally have a cheerier disposition than anyone Cathy had ever met. She seemed a little lost in thought, and Cathy certainly wasn’t going to bother her. She  _ never  _ wanted to be bothered when she was thinking.

At least they had an in at the morgue now. Should they ever need to look at a body again, they shouldn’t have to go through the same trouble they’d gone through today. That was helpful.

God, it had been hours since she’d last had her coffee. She was used to living on coffee and only coffee (it was cheaper), and as a result her body had become accustomed to drinking, well...quite a lot of it. 

At long last, they arrived at the police station. Kat stared at the door. It almost seemed as though she was in awe. Cathy crossed her arms and tapped her foot in annoyance.

“What are you waiting for? There’s evidence to find!”

Kat seemed to snap out of her daze, head jerking and pink hair flying. “Oh, so sorry! It’s just...the last time I was at a police station...wasn’t so great.”

It was obvious that her assistant wasn’t telling her everything, but Cathy wasn’t going to pry. Who was she to try and figure out the girl’s deepest secrets? If it ever impacted her work, then she was going to have no patience whatsoever, but for now, she would leave it be.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye.

They walked into the station and right up to the front desk, where a young man was sitting and staring at a laptop, seemingly unaware that they were there at all. There was a solid minute of silence before Cathy tapped on the desk (rather sharply, but she didn’t care). The man jerked his head up from the laptop with a pleasant smile on his face.

“What can I do for you?”

Kat popped her head up. She hadn’t been under anything, but she was so short that every time she spoke it seemed like she was popping up. “We’re here to see Catherine.”

“Do you have a meeting?”

Kat glanced sideways at Cathy. “Uh...do we?”

Cathy groaned. Catherine had been pretty brief on the phone, and she had no idea if she actually had an appointment. But this man looked like someone who could be easily fooled. He also looked very very nervous, playing with his hands and even shaking a bit. A receptionist was clearly not his job of choice.

“Of course we have an appointment. Why would we come here if we didn’t have one?”

The man literally shook in his chair. Cathy had to pinch herself to stop herself from laughing. This was far too easy. Even without appointments, this man had basically given her 24-hour access to Catherine’s office.

“No...no, of course I didn’t think you didn’t have an appointment.”   
“You just used the same word twice in one sentence.”

“Sorry.”

Kat popped her head up. “Don’t apologize! It’s only protocol.” She shot Cathy what was probably supposed to be a glare, but came off as slightly annoyed, because the woman was apparently incapable of death glares. 

The receptionist (she assumed that was what his job was), gave her a small smile. Maybe there were perks to having a nice assistant after all.   
“Go right in.”

“Wait,” said Kat. “What’s your name?”

The man fiddled with his fingers nervously. “Just Evan.”

Kat grinned. “All right, just Evan. Have a nice day!”

As they entered the room, Cathy took stock of their surroundings. Lots of desks covered in papers, with police (men and women) working at all of them. Catherine’s office was at the opposite corner from the door, but no one in the room paid her or Kat any mind. She remembered this office, but there were at least twice as many police as there had been when she’d been here last. 

She nudged Kat sharply in the shoulder. “Have you made it your job to learn the name of every single person we meet?”

Kat rolled her eyes. “It’s only the polite thing to do.”

“Politeness doesn’t bode well in this job.”

“Actually, I think it might.”

“Half a day of work and you’re already getting cheeky.”

“Technically, it’s five in the afternoon, so I’ve been working for nine hours.”

Cathy groaned. “Crap, that’s a long day. You won’t have to do that all the time.”

Kat grinned, plucking a lemon bar from a platter sitting at the center of one of the tables. “I really don’t mind.”

Catherine snatched up a coffee flavored biscuit, then put five others in her purse. She was always one to take advantage of free food.

As split second after the final biscuit had disappeared into her bag, Catherine walked out of her office, as imposing as ever, and with what looked like a new recruit in tow. Cathy analyzed the way the young woman looked around, dark eyes shining, taking everything in as though seeing it for the first time. Definitely a newbie. 

Catherine walked right up to them and placed her hands on her hips, frown on her face. The new woman stood next to her, looking confused.

“Cathy, what are you doing here?”

“I came to get the phone records?”

“Did I say you could have the phone records?”

Cathy felt annoyance course through her entire body. This was exactly the reason she’d hated working with Catherine in the first place. 

“Well, you said you had them.”

“Only to say that we now have evidence.”

“Which you’re not going to give to me despite the fact that I’m the one working on this case.”

“Much as I’d like to, I can’t legally give them to anyone.”

“So why did you tell me you had them?”

“I meant it to mean that we had evidence soon, not that you could come and get them right now.”

“Well, you should’ve specified.”

“Well, I didn’t.”

“All right then. Then there’s nothing left for us to do here.”

“Well, have you found anything?”

“Not without the evidence you’re withholding, we can’t.”

Catherine sighed. “Stop being a brat.”

“I’m not being a brat. You’re being a bitch. Come on Kat. We’re leaving.” She turned and began to walk out of the building.

There was a crash from behind her. She turned back around and rolled he eyes.

Kat had knocked the pastry tray onto the floor. She was standing very still, blushing very hard, and trying not to stare at the new police officer. Cathy groaned, grabbed her wrist, and yanked her out of the room and out of the building.

“Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who blushes, freezes up, and knocks things over whenever she thinks someone is cute.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Please. You couldn’t stop staring at that newbie in there.”

“I don’t think I know what you mean.”

Cathy sighed. “Well, just don’t let your little crush get in the way. You’re going to need all your wits about you tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“Because tomorrow morning, you’re getting to my office at seven, and we’re going to break into a police station.”

Kat’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You can’t be serious!”

“Do I look like the joking type?”

“You hired me to be an assistant! Not break the law on my second day of work!”

Cathy turned to her. “Look, if you don’t want this job, feel free to leave.”

Kat looked unsure for a second, then sighed in defeat.

“I guess I’ll see you at seven AM tomorrow morning, then.”

Sure enough, Kat was standing outside Cathy’s office at seven AM sharp the next morning, two coffees in hand and looking determined. Cathy happily took one and began to sip it as they walked down the chilly London streets. 

“So, what’s the plan?”

“The plan is that Catherine doesn’t come in until around eight in the morning. When we get there, there’ll be one person ‘guarding’ her office. The rest will be busy working. It’s your job to keep that person...whoever it may be...distracted while I sneak into the office. Think you can manage that?”

Kat squared her shoulders and attempted to look tall and imposing. It absolutely did not work. “I know I can manage it.”

Cathy rolled her eyes. Did the woman really have to be so enthusiastic about everything? “Second day and I’ve already made a criminal of you.”

“I’m just here to make you happy.”

Kat’s words were enough to make Cathy almost stop in her tracks. She’d meant to toughen up the girl, give her a bit of fun, but had she scared her into being her slave? Useful as that would be, even Cathy wasn’t that heartless.

Oh well. It was her own fault for being so weak-willed anyway. Cathy had been like that once, and she regretted it ever since. 

Once they reached the police station, Cathy nodded at Kat and slipped into the shadows at the edge of the room. It was a skill she’d long been good at, and it always came in handy. The only downside was that it caught her by surprise on the rare occasion when someone did see her. 

Kat went right up to Evan and began making small talk with him like there was no tomorrow.

_ She’s good at this,  _ thought Cathy,  _ because people don’t scare her. She loves them. _

“Good morning, Evan!”

“Good morning. Can I help you?”

“I’d like to see Catherine, please? I don’t have an appointment, but it’s rather important.”

“Well, Catherine isn’t here right now, but if you’d like, I can put you in touch with the person on office duty today.”

“That would be perfect!”

Evan nodded and picked up a little speaker from his desk. “Hello? Yeah, there’s a person out here who wants to speak with you.” He set down the speaker. “Just a second, uh…”

“Katherine.”

“Just a second, Katherine.”

Sure enough, a second later, the door opened, and Cathy had to stop herself from cursing when the very same newbie from the day before walked out. Dark skin, short dark hair, dark eyes. Kat was blushing very, very hard. Cathy only hoped she’d be able to carry on normal conversation.

If the woman noticed Kat’s blushing, she didn’t mention it. Instead, she stuck out her hand.

“Hey, I’m Anna.”

Turning even pinker, Kat tried to shake Anna’s hand, but somehow ended up knocking the pencil cup off Evan’s desk. She groaned and knelt down to the floor to pick up the pencils, and looked surprised when Anne knelt down next to her, placing her hand (just for a second) on Kat’s wrist.

“Here, let me help you.”

“Oh, thank you. Sorry for knocking the pencils over. I’m Katherine, by the way. You can call me Kat.”

“Nice to meet you, Kat.”

“Nice to meet you, too.”

Cathy rolled her eyes. She could feel the tension all the way from across the room.   
“You want to come into the office.”

“Yeah, yeah right. Sure!”

Kat followed Anna into the office, and Cathy followed them, being sure to stay near the wall and look unsuspicious, just in case someone saw her. True to her word, Kat lead Anna over to a table covered in mini food platters, just across from Catherine’s office door.

As quietly as she could, Cathy began to cross the room, and as she did, she did her best to keep an ear on Kat and Anna’s conversation, just to make sure Kat didn’t do any other stupid things. 

“So, how long have you been working here?”

“Just a few days, actually. This is my fifth day.”

“Oh, that’s so cool! How do you like it so far?”

“It’s cool. Nothing like we see in the movies, but it’s neat. I haven’t gotten to, you know, solve any murders or see any bodies.”

Kat laughed awkwardly. “Right…’cause who would ever do that?”

There was an awkward silence, followed by a crash as Kat knocked a stack of plastic bowls onto the floor.

Cathy finally reached the office and instantly began to sort through Catherine’s files, not even bothering to close the door. After all, she only had a matter of time before Kat destroyed the whole place. All the while, she kept an ear on her assistant’s conversation. 

“So sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into me this morning.”

“It’s alright. We all have our moments.”

“So tell me more about your job.”

“Well, hopefully soon I’ll get to, you know...see bodies and solve murders and all that.” There was a pause. “Plus, I get to meet all the cute girls.”

Cathy almost choked on air, and she could only picture Kat’s blushing face. She continued shuffling through the files, quicker and quicker. Was that it? Yes!

There was another crash, and she could see through the door that Anna had knocked the cups over. Wow, they were  _ both _ clumsy.

“Believe me, murders and bodies aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”

Cathy slipped out of the office and began making her way across the room again. Catching Kat’s eye, she beckoned toward the door, causing Kat to leap to her feet. Anna laughed.

“Where’s the fire?”

“Uh...nowhere! It’s just...I just remembered I have a...um...a cat! Yeah, a cat! And she needs...a bath! Like, right now!”

“Oh. All right. I’ll walk you out.”

“Yeah, yeah that would be great! Thanks so much.”

Cathy exited the offices, and their conversation faded a bit, though she could still make out their words.

“Wait, didn’t you come here to do something?”

“Oh, that doesn’t matter. Not as much as my dog.”

“I thought you said it was a cat.”

“It was a cat! And a dog! They, uh, both need feeding!”

“Baths.”

“That, too!”

Cathy turned on her heel, and ran straight into Catherine Aragon.

She turned with a sheepish grin and attempted to hide the file behind her back. Anna and Kat came out of the room, and froze. Catherine stared at Kat with a very annoyed look on her face. Kat turned very red (different from her usual pink blush), mouthed  _ I’m sorry  _ at Anna, and walked over to stand next to Cathy.

Catherine put her hands on her hips and glared at them both. “I agreed to let you try and solve a murder, not break into my office.”

Cathy put her hands on her hips to match Catherine’s. “We can’t solve a murder without evidence.”

Catherine looked at Kat. “Sorry you had to get roped into this.”

Kat looked down at her shoes. She shot Anna a quick glance, and Anna mouthed  _ don’t apologize  _ at her. Then she stared at her shoes again, but this time with a smile on her face.

Cathy rolled her eyes. “You know we’re just going to keep breaking in her until we get those phone records.”

Catherine groaned. “Fine! You can have the damn records!” she looked around. “But if you ever tell anyone outside this room I gave them to you, you will have worse problems than lack of evidence.”

Cathy smirked as she slipped the file into her bag. “Fine by me.”

Cathy nudged Kat in the side as they walked down the sidewalk. “So what was that about you not crushing on that new girl?”

As she’d predicted, Kat’s face turned very pink. “It’s not like that. She just seems nice.”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh. Just make sure the stuff for me always comes first.”

Kat grinned. “Of course!”

Cathy smirked as they reached the door of her office building. “Come on, then. How about some cell phone records?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the KatAnna has appeared! But let's be honest, nobody thought I was ever going to leave it out:)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for mentions of murder, mild panicking, and one mention of blood.  
> DISCLAIMER!! I have NO IDEA what a taxi firm is, how they work, or if they even exist. So don't hate on me for any inaccuracies, please!

Cathy leaned over her desk and scanned the cell phone records for the fifth time. Kat sat on the corner of the desk, twiddling her fingers nervously. Cathy sighed and placed her chin in her hands. Kat side-eyed her warily.

“This seems…”

“Ordinary and boring?”

“...yeah. Pretty much, yeah.”

“Ordinary and boring days rarely end in a murder.”   
“I  _ know  _ that. I just...we don’t really have any...anything, do we?”

“Obviously not.”

Kat leaned backwards so far that she almost looked like a gymnast. “So what do we do?”

Cathy sighed. Eleven AM and her assistant was already driving her insane. First by knocking everything over at the police station, and now with her constant questions. Didn’t she have any common sense at all?

“ _ We  _ don’t do anything. You do what I tell you.”

She could have sworn she saw her spine go from straight and tall to more like a willow branch, bendy and slouched. The girl  _ seriously  _ needed to work on her confidence. Her eyes were huge as she looked up, her voice barely higher than a whisper.

“So, what do you want me to do, then?”

Cathy sighed. “Her phone was at these coordinates after it left her apartment. I need you to use the internet to figure out what that is, and why she was there.”

Kat seemed to brighten up instantly. Unrealistically positive, as usual. “Yeah! I can do that!” She bounced over to the coffee table, then seemed to realize something. “Uh, I love using my phone to do research and stuff, but I have a laptop. Would it be alright if I brought it here tomorrow?”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay with that?”

Kat sighed and bent over her work, clearly annoyed at her boss’s prickliness, muttering “I was only trying to be polite,” as she began typing into her phone. 

Cathy bent over the cellphone records. It would be much easier once she knew what all those places were. Then she could find people and patches free of information, and start her true investigations.

But first, the places.

After about half an hour of sitting and drinking her coffee, lost in thought, Kat’s head popped up from the couch where she’d been on her phone. “I think I found it.”

Cathy set her coffee down on the desk. “What is it?”

“It’s the headquarters for something called ‘Wilkins’ Taxi Service.’”

“That’s one of the largest taxi services in London.”

“Do you think Chloe worked there?”

“It’d be my guess.”

Kat looked up at her. “Is there information to be found?”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Why are you even asking?”

To her surprise, Kat gave her a little glare. “Well, if I didn’t ask, you were going to be mad, and if I did ask, you were going to be mad. So I had to pick one.”

Cathy smirked. “Katherine Howard, that’s the most sass you’ve shown me in the past day and a half. You learn fast”

Kat turned bright red, and her mouth dropped open. Cathy felt the smirk sliding off her face. “For God’s sake, don’t let it go to your head. Now get your damn coat, and let’s go.”

Fittingly, they took a cab to the cab firm. Cathy had no idea if it belonged to Wilkins’ cab firm, but she enjoyed long car rides no matter what cab firm the cars came from. She stared out the window and looked at the rain pouring down the glass. Rainy days were good times to commit a murder, she’d learned, because it washed away all evidence, and it was easy to believe the victim had simply slipped, hit their head, and bled all over the ground. 

“Cathy?”

Cathy groaned, annoyed at being disrupted from her peaceful thoughts of murders. “Yeah?”

“Have you ever been in love?”

Cathy tried to stop the rush of pain that flooded through her mind all at once. A lot had happened last March, but this was one part of it she didn’t want to think about. Still, she forced a smirk onto her face, and buried the pain under layers of facts and figures. It was what she did best, after all. 

“Why, have you got love on the brain after you were talking with Anna all morning?”

As she had suspected, Kat turned bright red. “Why would you think that?” 

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Forget it. You can be in denial if you want, so long as it doesn’t make you screw up your job. It’s none of your business whether I’ve been in love, and I don’t want to hear any personal questions from you again. Got that?”

Kat gulped. “Got it.”

Cathy turned and stared out the window again.

Who would want to murder a 28 year old nobody? She’d seen celebrities, people with enemies, murdered, but Chloe Johnson didn’t seem to be anything but ordinary. There was nothing about her that would suggest even a potential conflict, let alone someone who would hate her enough to murder her. 

Cathy supposed she was going to find out very, very soon. And hopefully she’d have some suspects after the next few days.

The driver poked his head into the back of the cab. “We’re here.”

The two women stepped out of the cab. Cathy felt her brain recording every detail about the little brick office building they were standing in front of. It looked exactly like she would expect a cab firm to look.

They entered, and Kat’s eyes widened next to her as she took in all the people. For a cab firm, the little lobby was surprisingly crowded.    
Kat nudged her right arm. “Why are there so many people here?”

Cathy took in the angry faces and the papers they held. She took in the two people who were responding to everyone in the long line; a tall young man in a pink shirt, and a young woman with black hair that was dyed blonde at the tips, a denim jacket with graffiti style paint on it, and black lipstick. As they walked by, Cathy caught a couple of their words.

“Please. Everyone, calm down, listen up, there is a cool, calm way to solve this…”

“Shut your stupid faces!”

“Janis! You can’t yell at these people like that!”

“Why not? They’re yelling at us.”    
The rest of their words were lost in the sea of yells as a young woman talking on a cell phone stepped out of the offices. She was pretty, with dark curls, dark eyes, and big hoop earrings that shone in the light. 

“No, no, that’s  _ wrong! _ ” she yelled into the phone. “That’s what I said  _ not  _ to do. Don’t you even  _ listen  _ to me? Ugh!” She slammed the phone down onto the desk, then jerked her head up, suddenly all smiles. “Hi, I’m Gretchen. What can I do for you?”

Cathy whipped out her ID, something she’d nicked from Catherine’s drawer that morning. It came in handy.   
“Catherine Parr, Private Eye. I’m hear to speak to your boss about a murder.”

Gretchen’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh my god, murder? Are you sure you’re in the right place? You know we’re a taxi firm, right?”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Of course I know you’re a taxi firm. One of your employees has been murdered. I need to talk to your boss about it.”

Gretchen’s eyes were wide, and both hands were on her phone, as though she was about to send out some sort of update at any second. “Oh my god, who?”

Cathy smirked. “It doesn’t matter. Just take me to your boss.”   
Gretchen jerked up off of the desk and did her best to stand up straight. “Right! Come back here!”

As they went through the door, they entered a room full of young adults clicking at keyboards. Gretchen lead them over to two young women, each with a phone in hand and looking at a board covered in little lights. 

“Wait here.” She disappeared into the dizzying maze of offices.   
The woman closer to them, with reddish blonde hair and a t-shirt that said “Girls Who Calculate” on it, leapt up off her stool and gave a friendly wave. “Hey! Welcome to Wilkins’ Taxi Firm! I’m Cady and this is Karen. We work here.”

The other girl, this one with white-blonde hair, looked up from the board. “Hey Cady, why are the lights blinking?”

Cady sighed. “That means someone is available to take a passenger, Karen.”   
“Oh.” Karen stared at the board for a second. “What do I do about that?”

Cady gave them an apologetic smile. “Sorry! I need to go help her. But welcome! It was nice to meet you!”

As if on cue, Gretchen popped up out of the rows of desks, followed by another blonde girl, this one tall, intimidating, and dressed in all white. The woman and man from the lobby came in through another door, and they crowded around the lightboard with everyone else.

Gretchen flipped her hair. “Oh my god, so, that lady right there, she says that someone who works here has been  _ murdered! _ ”

“Oh that’s awful!”

“That’s  _ sick! _ ” Cady and the woman from the lobby (Janis?), spoke at the same time. Janis looked very excited, which Cathy respected. A good murder  _ could  _ be exciting. 

The taller blonde girl, the one in white, cocked her head and stared at everyone. She didn’t say anything, she just stared.

Karen looked confused. “Wait, aren’t we all here?”

The tall blonde girl rolled her eyes. “Karen, people who aren’t us work here. They’re not as important, but they  _ do  _ exist.”

Janis rolled her eyes. “Ah, Regina. Ever so modest.”

The man seemed distracted. Eventually, he spoke. “Okay, is it just me, or is that woman’s dress adorable?” He pointed at Kat.

Kat smiled. “Oh, thank you!”

Cathy cleared her throat. “Do I get to talk to your boss now?”

Gretchen popped out of the clump of people. “Oh! Right! I’m supposed to take you now! This way!”

They followed Gretchen through the maze of desks, down the hall, and into a room with a big squishy leather armchair behind a desk. Gretchen waved goodbye and closed the door behind them, mouthing “give me all the details later” as she did.

Kat cleared her throat. She seemed even more nervous than usual, almost physically shaking, though Cathy couldn’t tell why. “Um...Mr. Wilkins?”

The man in the chair spun around and stared at them with piercing grey eyes that were only slightly darker than his grey hair. “Yes?”

Cathy pulled out her ID, not wanting to waste any time. She didn’t like this man, and he was definitely making Kat uncomfortable. The girl looked like she was about to bolt.    
“Mr. Wilkins, I’m here about the murder of one of your employees. Chloe Johnson?”

The man leaned back in his chair. “Oh. Is she dead?”

“Yes sir. Murder means dead.”

“Good. Then I won’t get sued for firing her.”

There was an air of shock in the room. After what seemed like hours, Kat broke the silence.

“So...she wasn’t a good employee, then?”

“Oh heavens, no. She couldn’t take orders to save her damn life. Dumb as a rock and stubborn as a mule. Ehm...when did you say she died?”   
Cathy had to give him credit. If he was the murderer, he was certainly being smart about it right not.

“She died on Wednesday night.”

“Right. That explains why she missed work on Thursday and Friday. Anyway, I was planning to fire her on Thursday. We had a dreadful meeting on Wednesday morning, she stormed out all in a huff. Most disrespect I’ve ever seen.”    
Cathy nodded. “Do you have any idea where she went?”

“Not a clue. It wasn’t here, I’ll tell you that much.”

Cathy tucked her ID back into her pocket. “Thank you, Mr. Wilkins. That’s all we need for now.”

The second they were out of the office, Cathy turned to Kat, who was now white as a sheet of paper and shaking. “Are you alright?”

Kat seemed to struggle getting the words out of her mouth, but she nodded. “Yeah, yeah, sorry. Just didn’t get a lot of sleep.” A small smile crept onto her face. “You asked if I was okay!”

Cathy groaned. She hadn’t meant to do that. “I can’t get paid if my assistant’s dead.”

Kat rolled her eyes cheerfully, the color beginning to return to her face as they left the building, waving goodbye to the crowd of employees. “Well that was...eventful.”

Cathy smirked. “In fact, I’d say we’ve got ourselves our first suspect.”

Kat squealed. “Wow! Really?!”

Cathy rolled her eyes. She’d done that a lot today. “Yes. Really. Now go home and sleep.”

Their cab pulled to a stop outside of Cathy’s apartment building, and Kat practically jumped out, full of almost enough energy to make Cathy forget that she’d been shaking in her shoes 15 minutes ago. Almost.

“All right! I’ll go sleep!”

“Be here at 8AM tomorrow! And bring coffee!”

“Right! Good night!”

Kat raced off down the block, clearly excited. Cathy watched her go until a movement in the corner of her vision caught her eye.

She turned and saw a figure disappear into a nearby alleyway.    
Curious, she set off after the figure at a rapid pace. Turning the corner, she saw that the alley had a dead end. There was a woman standing at the end of it.

“Hey!”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Swearing, panic attacks, passing out, headaches, mentions of bodies and inuries.

The woman turned, the shadows of the alleyway seeming to wrap around her, until Cathy realized she was just wearing all black, which helped her blend into the darkening London streets of dusk. 

She was pretty, but not in the Disney princess way like most people found attractive. This girl had something intriguing and dark about her, something mysterious and dangerous. She had long dark hair and glittering eyes. 

Cathy knew that walking away was probably the better thing to do. She was investigating a murder, which was already risky enough, but this woman was clearly dangerous. 

So why did she find herself walking  _ towards  _ the end of the alleyway instead?

The woman didn’t look startled to see her. She didn’t move, didn’t run, just stood there, looking right into the detective’s eyes. She stayed until Cathy was mere feet away from her, close enough that they could’ve reached up and touched one another. Cathy couldn’t quite explain why she’d come so close, but the woman had an undeniable dramatic pull to her.

“What the hell are you doing next to my office?”

“Listen to me.”

Cathy stared into her glittering eyes. They were bright green, the only part of her that couldn’t naturally blend into the shadows.

When she spoke, she found her voice shaking, though why she didn’t know.

“Just tell me what you want.”

The woman leaned in closer, so close that their faces were only inches apart. “Stay away from this case, okay? It’s dangerous. Someone’s gonna get hurt.”

Cathy ignored the tremors that ran through her whole body. “I solve these things  _ before  _ people get hurt. That’s the point.”

“Look, I’m trying to warn you. Can’t you just take my word for it?”

“I’m a detective. I rely on logic, and logic alone, and  _ definitely  _ not the word of a creepy lady I met three seconds ago. How do I know you’re not the murderer and you’re not manipulating me to throw me off your tracks?”

Her green eyes glittered in the light of the setting sun. Cathy couldn’t ignore how beautiful they were. If this woman was a killer, she supposed that was how she killed. By luring people in and then grabbing their lives when they weren’t looking. Realizing just how close they were, Cathy cautiously took a step backwards.

The woman threw her hands up in the air, clearly frustrated. “I can’t. I can’t  _ prove  _ to you that I’m not the murderer. But I was only trying to help.” She took a step forward. “This is dangerous shit you’re getting into. I’m giving you a chance to get out of here while you still can.”

Cathy put her hand on her hip, a pose she hadn’t done since...well, ever. “Look, no offense, but whoever the fuck you are, I don’t need your help. I’m gonna solve this damn case.” And she turned and walked away.

“What, after what happened last March, you just want to prove you’re not a complete failure?”

Cathy froze. Slowly, she turned around and stared the woman right in the center of her green, glittering eyes. 

“And how the  _ hell  _ do you know about  _ that _ ?”

“I’ve been around,  _ Catherine.  _ I know a lot of things.”

“Leave me the hell alone.”

“I’m not trying to scare you.”

“Oh really? Because that’s exactly what you’re doing.”

“Warning you and scaring you are two different things. I know what it’s like to make one choice and regret it for the rest of your life. I have a soft spot for you. I’m trying to help.”

“You don’t sound like you’re trying to help me. You sound like a fucking stalker.”

“Look, you don’t have to believe me. But you’re gonna regret it if you don’t.”

Despite how intrigued she was, Cathy forced herself to turn away. This woman was insane. It was the only reasonable explanation for this.

“I don’t need your help, okay. I can do this on my own, and when I solve this murder, I won’t be thanking any psychopaths like you.”

And, trying her absolute best ignore her heartbeat going twice as fast as normal, she walked out of the alleyway and didn’t stop until she walked into her apartment, slammed the door behind her, and collapsed to the floor, gasping.

God, she’d done her best to hide it, but this woman had scared the hell out of her in every way possible. She’d known everything about March, and only two people in the world still knew everything about that. Or...so she’d thought. 

Plus, she’d been so gorgeous in the dark, alluring, dangerous way. It had made her heart beat faster, and she’d hated herself for it. 

It had been so much like Thomas.

He’d said before that he’d been trying to help her. To protect her. To warn her.

Look how that had turned out. 

Rolling over, she realized that she’d broken into a sweat since she’d gotten home. Her vision was blurring. Breathing was becoming harder.

Great. A panic attack. She hadn’t had one of these since the first  _ three  _ months after March had happened. 

She let her eyes close. 

She tried to forget tonight had ever happened.   
And everything spun into complete darkness. 

The next thing she knew, there were hands gently shaking her awake.

“Cathy? It’s morning, and I came to work, and I found you asleep on the floor.” She recognized Kat’s voice through her daze and her headache from sleeping on the floor all night. She groaned and pushed herself up to sitting. 

Kat dropped to the floor and gave her a concerned glance. “Do you want me to run and get you some advil or something?” 

“No, I’ll be alright. As long as you brought that coffee.”

She threw her hair up into a messy bun, grabbed the coffee out of Kat’s hand, and stumbled tiredly towards her desk.

Kat followed her tentatively, clearly sensing how prickly Cathy was. “What are we doing today?”

Cathy sighed. After last night’s disaster, trying to investigate a murder was the absolute last thing she felt like doing. But it was the third day of the job, and she certainly wasn’t going to stop now. 

She propped her head up on her hands, trying to ignore the pounding in the back of her skull. 

This was her new assistant. She was not going to fail and crumble right in front of her.

“I thought we could take a little visit to the murder scene.”

Despite her pounding head, she was sure she hadn’t imagined the tremble that went through Kat’s body. But she forced a smile on her face and squared her shoulders.

“All right. Have you got Chloe’s address?”

Cathy plucked a piece of paper off her desk. “Do you drive?”

“No.”

“Neither do I. Call me a cab.”

Kat scrambled for her cell phone. Cathy tried to ignore how bright the light from the windows was.

Kat put the phone down. “Cab should be here in ten minutes.”   
Cathy took a sip of her coffee. “Perfect.”

The cab ride to Chloe’s apartment passed in a blur. Cathy was too busy reviewing all the facts in her head to realize that Kat seemed a lot more nervous than usual.

“Hey Cathy?”

“Yeah?”

“Will there be...blood at Chloe’s apartment?”

Cathy wanted to laugh at her assistant’s extreme nerves. 

“What are you so worried about? You survived the morgue alright.”

“Yeah, it’s just...there are a few things that are a bit...triggering for me, and blood is one of them.”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “If you can’t handle blood, then maybe you shouldn’t have taken the job investigating the murders.”

Kat squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. “Look, I didn’t have a ton of job choices, and I needed some money, okay?”

Silence filled the cab. Cathy felt her face grow hot. She may not put people’s feelings at the top of her list of priorities, but making fun of someone for not having a lot of money was something she never wanted to do.   
“Sorry.”

Kat looked at her in surprise. “That almost sounded genuine.”

The cab pulled up to a halt. “We’re here.”

They tipped the driver and stepped out onto the curb. Cathy groaned as the front of the apartment came into view. There was a crowd of people standing there, and Catherine Aragon was at the head of it. The two women crept closer, and when they got close enough, Cathy was able to hear Catherine’s words. She winced at the pain the noises caused to her head.

“Now, we’re about to visit the scene of a murder. I’ll be looking for those of you who make the right observations, and those are the ones I’ll be putting on real cases in the future. Alright. Go on in. Don’t break anything or I’m kicking you off this force faster than you can say  _ investigation. _ ”

The group of young police disappeared inside the building, and Cathy spotted Anna in the crowd. She knew Kat must’ve spotted her, too, because she could already see her blushing. 

Catherine marched over to them. “You didn’t tell me you were going to be here this morning.”

Cathy crossed her arms over her chest, using absolutely all her energy to hide the fact that her head was pounding. “Well I didn’t know that I had to tell you where I was at every hour of the day. I thought that  _ not  _ needing to do that was part of this job.”

“Well, to be honest, Parr, I don’t trust you.”

“Wonderful, I don’t trust you either.”

“Look, I just wanted to investigate the place where the lady died. Is that too much to ask when you’re solving a murder?”

“Look, can’t you just wait a couple of hours?”

“Quite frankly I’m impatient and tired and I don’t have time to entertain a bunch of wide eyed police trainees while I try to figure out who killed people.”

“Well, I have a group of eight trainees in there who’ve gone through a ton of training and worked really hard to get here. I don’t want them to have to deal with a grumpy Private Eye on their first real investigation.”

“Well,  _ you  _ were the one who asked me to solve this murder. If you didn’t want me around, you shouldn’t have hired me.”   
Kat squeezed her hands together, clearly uncomfortable with the arguing. “Look, can’t we just go in there and investigate and not talk to the new police?”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “I suppose that’s the best possible solution.”

Catherine placed her hands on her hips. “Be my guest. Just don’t mess everything up in there.”

They climbed the stairs and entered the apartment, looking around.

Chole’s apartment was small and simple, with no carpets and only two rooms, an entrance where they were standing, with a little kitchen in the back and a small table, and a bed through a little archway to the right. The bed was surrounded by police tape, and Cathy could see how messed up the blankets were. It was clear there had been a real struggle. 

She began to wander around the apartment, looking for anything odd or that might show her something. Kat to circled around the room in the opposite direction, snapping photos of everything with her phone.

Cathy barely focused on anything. She couldn’t, really. Her head hurt too much.

She tapped one of the police on the shoulder. “Do you know if this apartment has been completely untouched since the murder?”

The young woman gave her a confused smile. “Yes, it is.”

Absentmindedly twirling her hair, the detective walked around the bed, and found herself standing at the window.

She froze. It was open. There were tiny cracks in the glass.

Suddenly she could see everything from last March all over again. The sirens. The bodies on the street. The bruises on her cheeks.

Her head pounded, getting stronger by the second. The bright sunlight, the rustling, the chatting, it all suddenly seemed brighter and louder than police sirens wailing on a spring night.

She couldn’t take it anymore. She hadn’t expected this job to be so hard. And in terms of the investigation, they weren’t. But that woman...she’d made everything a thousand times worse. Whether or not that had been her intention, Cathy didn’t know.

Regardless, she found herself sprinting out of the apartment and down the hallway, head pounding more and more with every step. At long last, she turned a corner, swung open a closet door, and fell against the wall, gasping for air.

A split second later, she was passed out on the floor. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Swearing, large crowds, vehicles.

Cathy groaned in pain and stirred on the floor of the closet. Her head was clearing, and the pain subsiding, but there was still a dull throbbing in her lower back. She must have tweaked something when she fell on the fucking floor.

She felt like such an idiot. There was no place for weakness or breaking down when your job was chasing dangerous murderers. She’d done it again. She’d thrown herself into ignoring her pain so she could protect everyone around her.

When was she ever going to learn that the only way she could protect the people around her was by protecting herself. She was the murder solver. Without her, there would be a killer on the loose.

She used her arms and pushed herself up to standing, leaning on the wall. Her head didn’t hurt any more, but she was going to have to work extra hard to hide her limp.

At least the visions of last March were gone. God knew how much longer she’d have been able to hide them, how much investigating wouldn’t have gotten done, how much time would’ve been lost.

She’d let down her guard one too many times with that woman in the alleyway. She wasn’t going to make that mistake again. 

She pushed open the closet door (thank god she hadn’t accidentally locked it) and walked back down the hall towards Chloe’s apartment. Catherine was standing outside the door with two of her trainees. As Cathy walked by and went back into the apartment, she caught a few snippets of the conversation.

“All that training on how to investigate, and all you can come up with is  _ there’s a bed _ ?”

The trainee on the left shrugged. “What am I  _ supposed  _ to say?”

“Oh, we are at what’s almost definitely a murder scene, I would think any decent investigator could come up with something better than  _ there’s a bed. _ ”

The trainee on the right rolled his eyes. “We’re in a fucking apartment. Jesus, lady, can’t you cut us some slack?”

Cathy leaned back against the wall, amused. She loved watching Catherine do this when she wasn’t the target.

Catherine put her hands on her hips and leaned right into the young man’s face.

“Oh, you want to talk about slack? This is a hard job. There are people’s  _ lives  _ on the line, their  _ safety  _ is in our hands. It is not to be taken by people who cut  _ slack. _ ”

“I just meant…”

“Look, I worked as a waitress and put myself through all four years of college. I rose up through the ranks all the way up to becoming chief. I worked my  _ ass _ off to get where I am. I’ve read your resume. You’ve had everything handed to you on a silver platter since the day you were born, you’ve never worked half as hard as I work every day in all of your life put together, and you want me to cut you some  _ slack _ ?”

Cathy had to cover her mouth to keep herself from laughing. The man looked so shell-shocked it was almost like a cartoon.

Catherine sighed and leaned back against the wall. “Just...go outside and wait in the cars. Both of you.”

The two young men scrambled for the door, clearly dying to get away from the irritated chief. 

Catherine glanced sideways at the young detective. “Quit staring. I swear to god, trainees have gotten much worse since I was doing this.”

“The window’s broken.”

Catherine gave her a small smile. “Well I never said  _ you  _ weren’t good.”

“Right. Because you aren’t a liar.”   
“As opposed to you?”

“I have my methods. They work. You leave me alone. That’s how this is.”

“Fair enough, Parr.”

She glanced into the apartment, where most of the trainees were still milling around. “Most of this group is particularly useless.” She scanned the small group. “Except for that one. She’s got potential. She just needs to work on being a little less hotheaded and a little more serious.”   
Cathy’s gaze followed her finger, and was unsurprised when it landed on Anna, who was standing by the bed. She looked like she was investigating, but it took about two extra seconds of looking to realize she was looking at Kat out of the corner of her eye. Kat, who was staring at the broken window, was clearly trying not to stare back, but instead was blushing such a deep shade of pink it almost looked like she was sunburned.

“Wasn’t she with you at the station yesterday?”

“Yeah. Like I said, she definitely has potential. Bright, brave, asks the right questions. But she’s got some problems, too. For instance, I put her in charge of guarding my office and she got distracted by your assistant in about two seconds.”

Cathy smirked. “My assistant was trying to be distracting. Did a better job than I thought she would.”

“She’s pretty.”

“She’ll be a good distraction. People focus on her. It means I can get away with more when nobody’s looking.”   
Catherine turned to face her. “Smart logic.”

“I’m a logical person.”

Catherine turned back towards the doorway and clapped her hands twice, the echoes ringing through the hall. “All right people, this was exciting, but there’s paperwork to be done and files to be sorted, and none of you have done anything impressive enough to make me want to put you on a case full-time, so get moving. If you go fast enough then I’ll buy you pizza on the way back.”   
There was a scramble as five of the six remaining trainees scrambled for the door. Only Anna remained behind, giving Kat a wave and walking as slowly as humanly possible. 

“Cleves! Quit staring at the pretty girl and get in the car!”

The tinge of red in Anna’s face was nearly undetectable as she raced out of the room, but Cathy noticed it, and she was pretty sure Catherine did, too.

Catherine rolled her eyes as she began to follow her young trainee. “Like I said, easily distracted.”

And with that she walked to the end of the hallway and slammed the door behind her.

Cathy walked over to Kat, who was scanning the broken window, head cocked sideways, hair spilling over her shoulders. 

“You ready to head out?”

Kat glanced up with an “I was daydreaming” sort of look on her face. “I didn’t realize we were going anywhere other than here.”

Cathy smirked. “Well, if you want to keep staring at a window you can do that. Or we can go find some more suspects.”   
Kat sighed and turned away from the window, though she still seemed lost in thought as they walked down the hall. “Are we gonna come back here?”

“Oh yeah. There’s always more to find at a murder scene.”

They reached the door. Cathy stopped in her tracks as she stared through the small glass square in the window.

Kat stared at her, looking nervous. “What’s wrong? Guns? Poison? Killers?”   
Cathy groaned. “Worse.  _ Press. _ ”

Sure enough, a large crowd of reporters had gathered outside the apartment. At the head of the crowd was a blonde woman holding a pen in one hand and a cell phone in the other. Next to her was a man with a camera. He looked a lot like her, and if Cathy had to guess, she’d say they were related.

Kat cocked her head. “What’s so wrong with press? Don’t they have the right to investigate this?”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, they technically do. But press means lots of people yelling at you and following you around and it means it’s nearly impossible to do any sort of investigating privately. You get a hell of a lot of attention, which is exactly the opposite of what we want. Plus they’re hellishly annoying.”

“But what if I answered all their questions? Isn’t that part of my job?”

“Please. Even I wouldn’t subject you to that level of hell.”   
“But I don’t mind. I like people, and I want to help.”   
Cathy rolled her eyes. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

So as they walked out onto the front steps of the building, Cathy tried to be as discreet as possible, edging towards the edges of the stairs. Meanwhile, Kat walked directly at the crowd of reporters. She looked terrified, and her voice shook when she spoke, but there was some semblance of confidence underneath it.   
“Hello, everyone! Um...I’m Kat. I can answer any questions you have to the best of my ability!”

The blonde woman stepped forward. “Hello! I’m Jane Seymour. Has it been confirmed that this is a murder?”

Cathy was across the street before she could hear Kat’s answer or any more of anyone’s questions.    
God, she’d forgotten how much she hated big crowds. They were loud and intimidating and annoying and they made her head hurt. 

But a scream cut through the air, causing her to snap her head up and snap her gaze over to the crowd.

She groaned. Kat was talented and bright, but her naïvete was going to kill her someday.

And by the looks of it, that day was very likely to be now.

Because Kat had somehow managed to get pushed into the center of the crowd, and she was rapidly being moved around in the middle, shoving and pushing as best as she could, but she was so short, and the reporters were practically on top of her.

Cathy was about to turn away when Kat tripped over someone’s foot in the middle of the crowd, stumbled a few steps, and fell flat onto her back in the middle of the street.

Of course the stupid reporters reeled back and started to take photos, all except for the blonde woman, Jane, who appeared to be trying to fight her way through the crowd, looking genuinely scared for the young girl. 

But that wasn’t Cathy’s main concern. Her assistant was lying flat on her back with the wind completely knocked out of her in the middle of a very busy street. She would run if she could, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get to her quickly enough. The cars were coming faster and faster.

The seconds felt like hours.

In a blur, suddenly Kat was being laid down in front of her, supported by none other than Anna from the police station. Kat was blushing brightly as Cathy bent over to help her stand up on her own (though rather shakily).

“God, I thought you were dead. You shouldn’t scare me like that.”

Kat blushed even more. “Well, then I won’t try dealing with reporters again.”   
Anna laughed. “Yeah. They seem pretty dangerous.”   
Cathy looked off to the left and pretended she wasn’t listening. She had no desire to pay any attention to the two of them while they pretended they weren’t flirting. 

“So...uh...thanks kind of doesn’t cover that, but thanks.”

“Don’t thank me. It’s technically my job.”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Saving idiotic secretaries who fall into the middle of the street is not your job.”

Anna placed her hand on her hip. “Don’t call her idiotic.”

Cathy smirked. They did have a charm to them, she’d admit that.

She turned to Kat. “Well, if you’re all right, we have some more work to do.”

Kat smiled, leaning on Anna’s arm to support herself. “Yeah, I’ll be all right.”

There was a honk from down the street, and Cathy could make out Catherine’s yells. “Cleves, congratulations on saving a life! Now get in the car so we can save some more!”

Anna gave Kat an apologetic smile. “Sorry. I have to…”

“No, go ahead! Thanks again for the...life saving.”

“Don’t thank me. All right, see you around.” And with that, she turned and jogged back down the street.

Kat turned back to Cathy, a little bit of a blush still spread across her cheeks, still looking a bit shaken. “Well that was harrowing.”

Cathy smirked. “You’ll get over it.” She glanced at the printed cell phone record in her hand. “Now who wants to go eat at a restaurant neither of us can afford?”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Swearing, mentions of murder.

Well, when the restaurant reviews had called this place the most expensive restaurant in London, they really hadn’t been kidding.

Kat slammed her menu down, looking almost more annoyed than Cathy had ever seen her. 

“A hundred dollars for a salad?” She looked at the menu again. “A full meal here is more expensive than a month’s rent for my apartment!””

Cathy sighed and took a sip of her water. “I gave up on paying rent when I stopped being able to pay the rent.”

“That is...not how life works.”   
“If I never answer the phone, they eventually give up.”   
“...no.”

“Whatever. Soon I’ll be able to pay again.”

Kat raised her eyebrows. “How come you couldn’t pay in the first place? I thought the police paid you.”   
Cathy set her glass down on the table with a loud clang. “Maybe one of those waiters or waitresses remembers Chloe.”

The two women scanned the restaurant. The room was incredibly small, so small that there were only four staff members walking around the room: a waiter, a waitress, a hostess, and a man who looked like a manager.

Cathy banged her fist on the table, hard enough that the nearest waiter took notice. He was young, around the same age as Kat. He also carried a guitar on his back, and Cathy was honestly surprised he’d even noticed they were there, because he looked like his head had gone into the clouds ages ago and it had never come back.

“Can I help you?”   
Cathy pulled out her ID, once again thankful that she’d been able to get it. It made things  _ much  _ easier. “I’m a private detective. There was a murder, and the victim was here. I need to see if you can tell us anything.”

The waiter looked genuinely heartbroken. “Oh god! Someone got murdered?! Who would do that?!”

The young waitress seemed to notice them from across the restaurant, and came to stand next to their table, placing her hand on her hip. She was short, with short, dark hair, and very pretty. “Oh god! People die?! I  _ never  _ knew that!”

The waiter looked hurt and almost puppylike, wide-eyed and still floating in the clouds somehow. “We’re allowed to be sad when people die!”

The waitress looked surprised, and even slightly hurt, though she was hiding it well. “Orpheus, of course I care when people die. But...we didn’t even know this person. There’s nothing we can do, and there’s no use dwelling on it. We’ve got so much to handle already with...life.”

Kat was looking at the two of them excitedly. Cathy wanted to slap herself in the face. She should’ve figured her assistant would be a complete romantic. “Do you always have these sorts of philosophical discussions while you work at a restaurant?” 

The waitress rolled her eyes, but she had a smile on her face. “No. We just sort of say whatever pops into our heads. Normally that’s him trying to flirt with me.”

Kat suddenly got a terrified look on her face and shrank away from the waiter. Cathy stared at her. Kat was a nervous person, but Cathy had never seen her be really really  _ scared.  _

The waiter...what had she called him, Orpheus?...seemed to notice her, too. When he did, he somehow managed to look even more like a puppy. “Oh, please don’t be scared of me! I’m not like that.”   
The waitress grinned. “As much as he annoys me, he’s right about that. He won’t hurt you.”

Orpheus gave her an...admittedly dazzling...smile. “Thanks, Eurydice.”

Eurydice rolled her eyes. “Don’t push it, loverboy. I said you wouldn’t hurt anyone. That’s very different from me saying I’ll go out with you.” She walked back across the restaurant and began to set one of the other tables. “If you need to interview me, I’ll be here.”

Cathy snapped out of her trance, shaking her head. These two had enough chemistry to mesmerize anyone, even her.

They would make great murderers. 

“Um...yes. I actually need to interview all of you. So I’m just going to use the front room out there to do that. We can sit on the...um...literal fountain that is apparently necessary for the front room of a restaurant, and the rest of you can stay here with Kat. Are you four the only people that work here?”

Orpheus nodded. “Yeah, it’s just us. There are some people who work in the kitchen, but they wouldn’t have seen your murder victim.”

Cathy nodded. “All right. I’ll take you out into the front hall one by one, and let’s see what we can find.” She nudged Kat as the two of them made their way to the door. “Take a look around this place. See if you can find anything.”

Kat nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

Cathy perched on the fountain in the front hall and took out her notepad. “All right, then. Send ‘em in.”

Orpheus was first. As they talked, he absentmindedly kept playing chords on his guitar.    
She showed him her photo of Chloe. Round face, wavy red hair, hazel eyes. Despite how rare red hair was, she somehow managed to look very, very boring. 

“Yeah, I actually do recognize her. If I’m being honest, I don’t always pay super detailed attention to all the customers, but I remember this one. She came here on a Wednesday a while ago and didn’t pay a lot. I waited on her, I think.”

Cathy scribbled the information down on her notepad. “All right. And Orpheus?”

“Yes?”

Cathy almost blushed. She couldn’t believe she’d been about to give  _ love  _ advice. Not only was she utterly unqualified to do so, it was also more affection than she would ever show anyone. Affection was dangerous. It meant promises and leverage and commitment.

“Nothing.”

Next in was Eurydice. Unlike Orpheus, she seemed more down-to-Earth with every second, and she was counting some money (her pay for the past day or two, Cathy assumed), as she spoke and studied Chloe’s photo.

“Oh yeah. She was such a pain to handle. I waited on her the first time...she came twice, for lunch  _ and _ dinner, and she was just really rude. I mean, I get not having a lot of money, I do. But...if she couldn’t afford it, she shouldn’t have bought a hundred dollar salad and then not paid for it. And she  _ definitely  _ shouldn’t have thrown that water in her friend’s face.”

“She was here with a friend?”

“For lunch, yeah. They were really fighting. I didn’t catch everything, just the yelling and the drink throwing.”   
“What happened at dinner?”

Eurydice squinted her eyes, trying to remember. “Let’s see...she wasn’t here with the same friend, she was here with a guy, and based off of the way they acted, I would guess he was her boyfriend. Orpheus was waiting on them, and he was annoyed, which is unusual for him. This woman hadn’t paid for her lunch, you see, and Hades...that’s our boss...kept telling Orpheus to get her to pay. Orpheus kept trying, but she kept just not paying. She stormed out again. It was really loud.” The young waitress groaned and leaned against the wall. “Plus her water got all over everything. I lost tips for that.”

Cathy did her best to scribble everything down as fast as she could. This girl clearly had a detailed memory, but about half of what she was saying was less useful than the other half, so she had to categorize as she wrote.

But she still needed more information.

So she turned to the last two workers. These two were older than Orpheus and Eurydice, but that could have been the air they gave off, as though they’d been to hell and back. 

Their names were Hades and Persephone, and Cathy could already tell they weren’t going to be easy to get information out of. 

So she tried her best.

“So, I’m a detective, and I need to ask you some questions about this customer.”

Persephone rolled her eyes and took a sip from the flask she was carrying at her waist. It brought back painful memories of when Cathy used to do the exact same thing. Before last March had happened.

“Why would we remember anything about one girl? Lots of people come in here, you know.”

Hades studied the photo, looking deep in thought. He was intimidating enough to make a good detective, or a good killer, but it was all too clear what his weakness was. 

Lay a finger on that hostess and he’d be very easy to break.

“She didn’t pay.”    
Cathy wanted to scold herself after she nearly leapt off the fountain in shock. Hades’ voice was deep and menacing, and she hadn’t been expecting it.

“I know she didn’t pay, but she’s dead. I’m asking you to look through those books and get me the names of the people she was here with.”

Persephone grinned. “Oh, that’s too easy. You got anything more...interesting?”

Hades placed his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be any more trouble than you’re worth.” He stared Cathy right in the eyes and made her shiver. “But why should we tell you this?”

Cathy had to shake her head to stop herself from being scared out of her mind by his deep, powerful voice. “Sir, I’m a detective. I have my ID right here. You have to show me the evidence necessary for my case. It’s literally the law.”

Sighing, Persephone somehow pulled the book out of her bag and began to skim through it. She must have found it, because she eventually stopped turning the pages. Or maybe it was Hades’ fingers slowly slipping into hers.

“There. She was here with a woman named Maegan Hart and then a man named Oliver Rishkowitz.”

Cathy nodded and scribbled the last bits of evidence on her notepad. “That’s all I need for today. I might be back.”

Neither Hades nor Persephone bothered to say ‘you’re welcome.’ Persephone was long gone before she even stood, moving with the speed of the wind. Hades was slower, but she could tell he wasn’t one for goodbyes. 

Kat poked her head out of the restaurant and plopped down next to Cathy on the fountain. “Find anything?”

Cathy smiled as she put her notes away. “Yeah. We have two more suspects. You?”

Kat blushed. “I...may have just told Eurydice to open her heart and Orpheus to be patient.”

“Of course you found the most useless thing you could possibly do.”

“Well...it worked?” The two women exited the restaurant and had begun to descend the stairs when Kat stopped short in her tracks, staring up at the ceiling. 

Cathy froze. She could feel her heart beating in her chest.

It was the woman in black from the alleyway. The one who had caused her to nearly have a complete mental breakdown. The one who was mysterious and exciting and somehow...absolutely gorgeous. 

Kat stared at her and the woman, and then her again, and then the woman again. A smile slowly spread across her face, though Cathy could tell she was trying to hide it.

“Holy shit. You’re crushing on the creepy lady!”

Cathy sighed. She looked up, but the woman was already gone. She wasn’t worried. She would be back when the time came.

“Crushing is one word for it.”

“No! I think it’s sweet!”

“Well I’m not in love so it doesn’t matter!”

Kat sighed, leaning on the banister. “Have you _ ever  _ been in love?”

Cathy felt all the lightness she’d begun to feel with her assistant go away, replaced almost entirely by fear and self-loathing. She leaned in Kat’s face.

“Listen, Buttercup..."

"Don't call me that, please."

"Whatever. My personal life is my business. Not yours. It will never be yours, and it never will, so if you don’t mind, please fuck off.”   
And she turned on her heel and descended, all the way to the bottom of the stairs, with an anxious looking Kat following close behind.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Mentions of murder, falling, head injury, swearing.  
> As always, this chapter has many special guests!!  
> Fans of She-Ra, be sure to look out for the references! They shouldn't be too hard to find:)

The second they stepped outside the restaurant, Cathy checked her watch. To her surprise, it was only one in the afternoon. It felt like this day had already gone on for eternity. She turned to Kat.

“Ready for more?”

Still clearly looking uncomfortable, Kat nodded. “Sure. Where are we going?”

Cathy stared at her notes. “We have two more suspects, but there’s also a giant hole so far in Chloe’s day. Her phone can pinpoint where she was, but that’s about all. We should try to fill it in, and we can interrogate these people later.”

“All right. Where does her phone say she was?”

Cathy checked the records she was holding in her hands. “Looks like she went to the ballet.”

Kat cocked her head. “Why would she go to the ballet? Based on what we know about her, it doesn’t seem like she would be able to afford that.”

Cathy smirked. She was still furious at her assistant for her prying, but she did love the thrill of a mystery. She always had. It was euphoric for her. She had something to focus on, something to figure out. Everything was clear-cut facts and evidence. There was always a right answer. No emotions or people to complicate things and mess everything up.

“Are you ready to go to the  _ ballet _ ?”

Kat raised an eyebrow. “How are we supposed to afford this?”

“Oh, the police are funding us.”

“So that’s why you ordered that steak at the restaurant.”

“Mmmhmm, it was for research.”

“Riiiight.”

“Let’s just go.”

“All right.”

Once they got to the ballet, it was surprisingly easy to find what they needed.

The usher rolled his eyes. “Oh yes, I remember that Wednesday. This woman came for the afternoon matinee, and she was awful. She clearly didn’t want to be here, and I get that, she came with one of our regulars, but she really didn’t have to fall asleep in the middle of the show and spill soda everywhere. All of our dancers were furious. It’s a small theatre, they can tell when someone does something like that.”

Kat pulled out the photo of Chloe she was carrying. “Is this her?”

“Yes!”

Cathy took out her notes. “Right. Do you remember the name of the friend she was here with? Or any of the dancers who were in that performance?”

The usher smiled. “Sure I remember the dancers. We have a regular company of nine ladies, so they’re all here now. I can take you to them if you’d like.”

“Perfect. What about her friend? Do you remember her name?”

“Of course! It was…”

“Claaaark!”

The usher put a pained smile on his face. “Hi, Jenna. These people are here investigating the murder of that friend you brought last Wednesday.”

“Oh, yes! Poor Chloe.” The woman...Jenna...dabbed at her eyes and made some sniffing noises. She certainly looked like the dramatic type. Her chestnut curls were piled up on top of her head and held back with enormous golden sunglasses, and her enormous leopard fur coat wasn’t exactly subtle, either. “I was her downstairs neighbor, you know. When I heard about her death, it was just so... _ tragic _ !” She broke into sobs, dabbing rapidly at her eyes to try and keep her (enormous amount ot) mascara from running down her face.

Cathy smirked. “Kat, why don’t you get to know our new acquaintance here? I’ll head on back with Clark and get to know some of our dancers.”

Kat side-eyed Cathy, looking annoyed, but she forced a smile on her face and turned to look at Jenna. “Hi Jenna. I’m Kat. It’s lovely to meet you.”

Their chatter faded away as Cathy followed Clark back into the curtains and behind the stage, where, sure enough, nine women were practicing a complicated looking dance. Even Cathy, who knew nothing at all about dance, could tell how good they were.

In the front and center of the clump were two girls who were clearly very close because they were moving exactly in sync without even looking at one another. One had pale skin and red hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, while the other was taller, with dark skin and black hair. Both were clearly leaders of the group, though if Cathy had to guess, she would say the redhead was technically the leader, and the dark haired one was the one who planned things. 

On either side of them were four other girls, each doing the same sequence of movements over and over. To the left were two girls, both with dark hair, though one had pale skin and black hair, the other had darker skin and shorter, dark brown hair. Both girls were shorter than the two at the center. The brown-haired girl, who was wearing red, seemed to know all the moves so perfectly that she’d just found a complete rhythm, and was in another world. Even the black-haired girl, who looked as though she’d rather be anywhere but there, knew the moves perfectly. She would be really good if she’d stop rolling her eyes.

On the other side were two more girls, one similar in height to the dark-skinned girl in the middle, one who was the shortest of all. The taller girl had pale skin and brown, wavy hair, while the shorter one had straight black hair, and appeared to be of Asian descent.

Just as Cathy began to wonder where the others were, the two girls dancing in front moved to the sides, revealing two more girls in the center. Both had brown hair, but one (the taller one), had light brown hair in one braid, and the shorter one had dark brown hair in two. As Cathy stared, they began a complicated series of lifts, the light brown haired girl lifting the darker haired girl higher and higher with each lift. They twisted high up, and…

The taller girl tripped on a loose floorboard, sending the shorter girl crashing to the ground. All the girls immediately rushed over, including another girl with curly brown hair and skin that was dark, but not as dark as the girl who’d been dancing in front.

Cathy tried to tune in to the buzz of chatter.

“Did you really drop her  _ again _ ?”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Hey, leave her alone! She’s the only one who can even  _ do  _ those lifts!”

“That’s not true!”

“I’d like to see  _ you  _ try!”

“Ladies!” yelled Clark. They all jumped, and Cathy nearly did, too. She’d honestly forgotten he was even there.

The clump broke apart, leaving the girl with the brown braids sitting on the floor, looking a little dizzy but mostly okay. She grinned up at them. “What’s going on?” Her speaking was slightly slower than usual, giving the impression that she had indeed been dropped one too many times.

Clark cleared his throat. “This is Cathy. She’s a detective. She’s here to speak to you about the woman who was here last Wednesday.”

The tall girl with the dark skin flipped her hair over her shoulder. “You mean the  _ really  _ rude one?”

The girl in red plopped down onto a chair that was sitting at the edge of the room. “Did something happen?”

Cathy laughed. “You could say that.”

And so the interviews began. This time Cathy wasn’t stupid enough to try and record the words of nine girls, all of whom clearly had big personalities. So she took out Kat’s phone, turned on the voice memos app, and pressed play.   
“What’s your name?”

The redhead grinned. Somehow she managed to look incredibly peppy even though she was literally being interviewed about a murder.

“Hi! I’m Riley!”

Cathy gritted her teeth. This girl was already getting on her nerves. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too!”

Cathy pulled out her notes. “Right. So, the girl who was here on Wednesday...she’s dead now. Someone killed her.”

Riley pressed her hands to her face. “Who did it? Was it her friend?”

“You’re not...surprised?”

“Honestly not. She was  _ so  _ rude to us. That behavior is just unacceptable in a person!”

“Is it possible that someone in this show killed her?”

“What time did she die?”

“Between ten and eleven, we think.”

“Then no. We were all doing a show.”

Cathy raised her eyebrow. “That’s all. You can go.”

“Okay! Thank you!”

Riley left, the curtains rippling behind her. Cathy didn’t trust this girl at all, but maybe one of the others could help clear things up.

“Name?”

“Cairo.”

“Know anything about this girl?”

“She seems annoying as fuck.”

“You know she’s dead, right?”

“What’s it gotta do with me?”

“She did ruin your show.”

Cairo rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not a fucking murderer. I don’t even  _ know  _ this girl. If someone killed her, then good for them, but it wasn’t me. And even if it was, I certainly wouldn’t come right out and tell you.”

Cathy sighed. These girls were not making  _ anything  _ easier. “Thank you. You can go now.”

The next girl came in, the one with the pale skin and the black hair, which she was now wearing in a ponytail that poked through the back of her baseball cap.

“Name?”

“Kate.”

“Do you remember the woman who came here on Wednesday?”

“Kind of? I wasn’t really paying attention that day?”

“Why not?”

“Do I  _ look  _ like I want to be here?”

“Then why  _ are  _ you here?”

Kate sighed, slumping into the chair. “My best friend and my girlfriend are here. They’re...they’re everything I have.”

Cathy rolled her eyes. While this girl seemed innocent, she was also clearly extremely unhelpful. “But you don’t remember much about this woman?”

“No, not really.”

Cathy sighed. These girls were making her job a lot harder. “Thank you, Kate. You can go.”

Three interviews in and they were all blurring together. All of these girls were either untrustworthy or unhelpful.

“Name?”

“Eva.”

“Do you remember this woman?”

Eva squinted at the picture. “Yeah. She fell asleep during our show. It really pissed off some people.”

“But not you?”

“Honestly, not really. People do crappy things sometimes. You just can’t let them ruin you.”

Cathy tapped her pencil on the notepad. “But did anyone else seem angry enough to, you know...murder her?”

Eva looked right into her eyes. “Look, lady. This crew is full of the weirdest, creepiest girls I have ever met. But they are  _ still  _ my team. I put up with their craziness because this pays my bills, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to accuse  _ any  _ of them of murder.”

Cathy sighed. She was reaching the limit of her patience, and she’d never had a lot of patience for anything to begin with.

“Name?”

“Annleigh!”

“Do you know this woman?”

“Oh yes. She ruined our show!”

“You know she was murdered, right?”

“Yes.” Annleigh looked around, as though making sure that no one was watching. “I’m really not supposed to wish this on anyone, but I sort of hope she rots in hell forever.” She clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh God! Please don’t tell anyone I said that!”

Cathy rolled her eyes. Were  _ all  _ of these girls completely insane?!

“Did you kill her?”

“Oh God no! I don’t condone  _ murder _ ! I haven’t even had sex yet!”

“I really didn’t need to know that.”

“Oh. Okay!”

“You can go now.”

“Great! Thank you! I hope you find peace within yourself and with God!”

The curtains rustled again and the short Asian girl popped her head in. “Hello!”

“Name?”

“Mattie Wheeler!”

“Do you recognize this woman?”

Mattie squinted at the picture. “Nope!”

“She did ruin your show, no?”

Mattie looked deep in thought. “Oh was that her?”

“You didn’t notice?”

“I heard snoring, but I wasn’t really looking.”

“Why not?”

Mattie blushed. “Well, I’m new to the dance company this year, and I really don’t want to mess up. So I focus.”

“That’s admirable of you.”

“I know, right?”

“You can go now.”

“Oh. Okay!”

Cathy sighed as the girl left. She really was getting nowhere. Every one of these dancers could be a killer. Every single one of these dancers could also not be a killer.

The curtains rustled and another girl appeared, the one with the light brown braid.

“Name?”

“Chess.”

“Do you remember this woman?”

Chess’s face turned a deep shade of red. “...yeah. She distracted me. I...dropped Farrah again that night.”

“The girl with the braids?”

“Yeah.”

There was a pause.

“If you can’t do the lifts anymore, why are you here?”

Chess sighed. “I used to be able to do the lifts. But then I hurt my leg, went through some rough shit with my painkillers. I’m getting better, but...I haven’t been the same since.”

“But you’re going to keep trying.”

A look of determination flashed through Chess’s eyes. “Until I can’t anymore. They  _ have  _ to know I’m still worth it.  _ Especially  _ Kate.”

“You really care about her, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. She’s my best friend. We’ve known each other since we were kids.”

Cathy sighed. She pitied this girl, but she wasn’t the reason why she was here. “I wish I had someone like that. You can go now.”

Almost seconds after Chess had disappeared into the curtains, the girl with the braids (what had Chess called her, Farrah?), popped her head through the curtains, walking in with a lot of swagger and  _ very  _ shaky legs. 

“Is it my turn?”

Cathy raised her eyebrows. “Are you drunk?”

Farrah plopped into the chair. “For once, no. I’ve just hit my head for the...somethingith time.” She giggled. “Hey, you’re pretty.”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Name?”

“Farrah.”

“Do you recognize this woman?”

Farrah squinted. “Oh yeah. She’s the reason Chess dropped me.”

“Are you mad at her?”

Farrah took a sip out of her water bottle. “Yeah, she’s a bitch.”

“Exactly how mad were you?”

“Oh, y’know. Just pissed.”

“Mad enough to kill her?”

Farrah giggled again. Cathy pitied her. She didn’t seem to have it easy. “Riiiight, like I’d kill someone.”

“Would you?”

The question seemed to truly catch the girl off guard. 

“Of course not.” There was genuine hurt in her eyes. “I...I would never.”

Cathy sighed. She was pretty sure the girl wasn’t acting, but one could never jump to conclusions when it came to this sort of thing. “All right, Farrah. You can go.”

She sank back into the chair. Only one interview left, yet every single one of these girls could be a murderer. Even the ones who seemed less...psychotic, definitely had a motive.

“Name.”

The girl in front of her was sitting up straight, looking very nervous. “Reese.”

“Do you recognize this woman?”

“Yeah, she fell asleep at our performance. It actually really hurt my feelings, because I was trying out some new splits I’d never done before, and I was nervous about it, and…”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “I’m not here to be your therapist, okay? I’m here to solve a murder.”

Reese had an oddly familiar look on her face, though Cathy couldn’t quite place why it was so familiar. “All right. How can I help?”

Cathy leaned in closely. “Do you know if any of the other dancers killed her?”

Reese reeled back, looking shocked. “What? No! They wouldn’t  _ do  _ that!” She suddenly looked terrified. “Would they?”

Cathy groaned. Why were all these girls so utterly useless? Thank god this was the last interview. She wasn’t sure she could survive another one. “I don’t know, Reese. That’s what I’m trying to figure out. You can go now.”

Reese practically ran away. Only then did Cathy realized why the look on her face was so familiar. It was the same eager-to-please look that she saw so often on her own assistant.

She heard another rustling in the curtains. Apprehensively, she made her way over.

Hands grabbed her around the waist, holding her hands still and tipping her backwards.

“Hey, Cathy.”

She found herself face to face with the woman from the alleyway, green eyes glittering brightly.    
“Are you  _ dipping  _ me?”

The woman laughed. “We are in a theatre.”

Cathy groaned. “Aren’t you going to let go?”

“Nope.”

“What are you  _ doing  _ here?”

“I came to warn you.”

“Oh, again?”

“Listen, you need to get out of here. It’s not safe!”

“I’m a detective. I didn’t sign up for safe.”

“The killer is here.”

Silence hung in the air between the two women. Slowly, reluctantly, the green-eyed woman stood up, releasing her. 

“How do I know you’re not messing with my head?”

“You don’t. You just have to believe me.”

“And why would I do that?”

“I’m no less believable than anyone else.”

“On the contrary, I’d say you’re much less believable than anyone else. You’re basically a stalker. You haven’t even told me your name.”

The woman sighed, then stuck out her hand. “I’m Anne.”

Cathy didn’t take it. “Alright, Anne, if that’s even your real name. Say the killer is here. What am I supposed to do about it?”

To Cathy’s surprise, Anne reached forward and grabbed her shoulders, not forcefully, but tenderly. Her eyes seemed full of real passion, but then again, there was always the chance it was all an act.

Better to believe that than to risk everything.

“You get out of here. Get away while you still can.”

“And what about you?”

“I’m too far gone. I’ve gotten too far into this. But you still have a chance. If you don’t leave now, someone is going to pay for it, and that person may not be you. Do you really want to go through that again?”

Rage coursed through Cathy. “You don’t know  _ anything  _ about my parents, okay?!”

“I didn’t mean....”

“Look,  _ Anne.  _ Whoever you may be, I don’t trust you. And I’m not going to leave a potentially dangerous criminal wandering around because some creepy stranger told me so. For all I know, you’ve been the killer all along!”

For once, Anne seemed at a complete loss for words, slowly backing away. When she spoke, her voice was low. 

“You don’t want to listen to me? Fine. It’s your loss, anyway.”    
And she disappeared into the curtains. 

Cathy tried to shake off her feelings of uneasiness as she headed back towards the theatre, running straight into Kat as she walked.    
Kat grinned. “Finally! That woman is awful! Did you find anything?”

Cathy pocketed the phone. “Not yet, but I have a plan.”

“Which is?”

Cathy side-eyed Jenna from across the room and pulled a pill out of her purse. “See this?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s gonna go in that wine she’s buying.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Hardly. But we get to see just how the dancers react when someone falls asleep during their show.”

Kat’s eyes widened. “That’s…”

“Brilliant?”

“I was going to say cruel!”

“It gets worse.”

“I should have guessed.”

Cathy sipped the water she’d grabbed from the bar. “We need a perfect view. The back of the audience isn’t too clear.”

“So what do we do?”

Cathy smirked. “ _ We  _ don’t do anything.  _ You’re  _ going to climb those ropes backstage and perch in the rafters.”

Kat’s mouth dropped open. “And I agreed to this  _ when _ ?”

“You agreed to danger when you took this job!”

“I agreed to be your  _ secretary _ !”

“Being my secretary means doing stuff like this!”

Kat rolled her eyes, looking more annoyed than Cathy had ever seen her. Honestly, she couldn’t really blame her. “Why can’t you do it?”

“Someone has to keep an eye on Jenna here.”

“Why can’t I do that?”

Cathy put her hands on Kat’s shoulders. If she was being honest, she would admit that she was still a little prickly at Kat for asking about her love life earlier. But even without that, she would still get her to do this. Why? 

“Kat, I hate to break it to you, but you’re pretty and innocent and naïve looking. If you get caught doing something shady, you will get off without a hitch, I guarantee it.”

“And you wouldn’t?”

“I’m a creepy looking private eye. Please.”

Kat looked at Jenna. She looked at Cathy. She glanced around the room.

“Fine. But you owe me.”

“I pay you. I owe you nothing.”

“We can...talk about it later.”

“Go climb.”

“Okay.”

Just as Kat left, Cathy saw Jenna sliding into the bathroom. Perfect. Looking around the room to make sure nobody was watching, she slipped the pills into Jenna’s wine glass, then slid away to her seat in the back of the theatre.

Jenna slid into the seat a few rows in front of her just as the show was starting, yawning dramatically as she did so.    
The dancers began to move onstage. Cathy didn’t know much about dance, but like before, she could tell they were good. They were doing a different routine than the one she had seen before; moving rapidly and jerkily to a bombastic piece of music. 

Just as she was about to check her watch to see exactly how much time had passed, she heard loud snoring coming from in front of her. 

Sure enough, Jenna was fast asleep and snoring like a bear, no, like  _ ten  _ bears.

She couldn’t see the dancers’ expressions from here, but she hoped Kat could.

Glancing up at the ceiling, she could see Kat’s little shadow darting along a rope. She was close enough to the stage to have a good view of the dancers, which was good. She even seemed to be balancing well, considering she wasn’t an acrobat or anything of the sort.

Wait...what was that in the shadows near the wall?

Was that another figure?   
Cathy squinted up at the high ceiling. She couldn’t see anyone’s face, but this new figure was one she definitely hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t the same shape as Anne or Kat.

And it was leaning towards the rope.

Cathy couldn’t call out. She was in the middle of a theater, and it wouldn’t do anything anyway. She was already in the middle of the rope. There was no time.

So she had no choice but to watch as the mysterious figure made the cut.

The rope went slack, and Kat screamed as she hung suspended in the air for a split second.

And then she began to fall.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Falling, mentions of death and murder, swearing, thunderstorms, extreme cold.

The entire theatre froze as they watched the girl fall. Even the dancers on the stage were screaming, frozen in whatever poses they’d been in. The audience was yelling and running around and being useless, and Clark was trying to calm everyone down, but nothing even came close to working.

Cathy barely registered any of it. Her eyes were glued to Kat, falling in fear, and guilt was creeping into the edges of her mind. But she shoved it away and tried to focus on getting her assistant out of the air.

Except there was  _ nothing  _ she could do.

Up in the air, Kat had curled up into a ball and was trying not to look at the ground. Even from her seat, Cathy could see her shaking.

All of a sudden, a figure swung through the ropes. Cathy couldn’t make out who it was, but they were swinging towards Kat. In a flash, the figure had her in their arms, and they were swinging back towards the wall.

The audience, including Cathy, breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Clark leapt up onto the stage, looking sweaty and panicked. “Um...okay everyone. That’s...all we have time for tonight. If you would just calmly make your way towards the exit doors…”

He was cut off by the audience surging towards the exit in one chaotic, noisy mob, all except Jenna, who was still sleeping in her chair. Normally Cathy would’ve cleared up all the evidence of her little trick, but she had bigger concerns.

She followed the mob out the door, but instead of following them out of the theatre, she turned up the flight of stairs that lead to the balcony, walking as fast as she could without completely giving in to the urge to flat out sprint.

Halfway across the balcony, she found Kat, looking incredibly shaken but alive, and still in the arms of none other than Anna Cleves.

Well that was simultaneously surprising and not shocking at all. 

She ducked into the shadows before they could see her. Even she wasn’t going to interrupt this if she didn’t have to.

Kat was blushing so deeply that Cathy thought her face was going to fall off (metaphorically, of course).

“I seem to have made a habit out of needing to be saved by you.”

Anna’s cheeks flushed. Between the two of them, they were going to actually set the theatre on fire. “Don’t worry. You’re worth it.”

Cathy hadn’t thought it was physically possible for Kat to blush even more.

Gently sliding out of Anna’s arms and onto the floor, Kat sighed and leaned gently on the railing. “For your sake, I’ll try not to make a habit of it. Sooner or later, all that saving is going to catch up to you.”

“Please. Who would want to hurt me? I’m not the kind of police officer who has enemies.”

Cathy took her cue to step out of the shadows, before they decided to break everything in the theatre with their awkwardness. “Who would want to kill Kat?”

“God, Cathy, you scared me!”

Cathy took in the appearance of her still shaking assistant. “Are you all right?”

Kat sighed, still leaning on the railing. Looking nervous, Anna put her arm around her shoulders, both supporting her and keeping her from falling.

“I’m...okay, I guess. All part of the job, right?” She managed a weak smile.

Cathy smirked. “I’ll make a detective out of you, yet.”

Anna frowned, looking irritated. “She shouldn’t have  _ been  _ up there in the first place.”

“She knew what she signed up for when she took this job!”

“We both know that’s not true.”

Kat squirmed uncomfortably. “Guys, please don’t fight.”

“She agreed to go up there all on her own.”

“She’s not exactly in an ideal position to say no to you!”

“You know I’m standing right here, right?”

“Look, it’s not like I  _ wanted  _ her to get killed!”

“Why, so you wouldn’t lose your paper sorter?”

“That is  _ not  _ fair. This job is dangerous, Kat knows that!”

“She could have  _ died _ ! She almost did!”

“So have I! Many times! It’s more than you’ve ever done!”

“And what’s  _ that  _ supposed to mean?”

“Just that you’re nothing! You’re Catherine’s pet who runs around and does whatever she says, but you’ll never amount to anything  _ real _ ! I’m a detective, I barely know you, and that much is clear!” Cathy gasped for air, out of breath from speaking with so much energy. The worst thing was, she didn’t even dislike Anna. But what she was saying was too true. Her heart couldn’t take it.

Kat shoved away from the wall, looking angrier than Cathy had ever seen.

“That is  _ enough _ !”

Silence rang throughout the balcony. Kat stared into Cathy’s eyes, looking somewhat terrified at her own words, but also determined to finish what she’d started.

“Cathy, she saved my life! You can’t be mad at her for that!”

“Thank you!”

“I’m not done! Anna, Cathy is my boss. My job is weird and dangerous, but it’s my job, and nobody gets to criticize it!”

“But this is…”

“This isn’t anybody’s fault! Blame the person who cut the rope!” Kat took a deep breath. Cathy could see the anger draining out of her. It was pretty clear she’d never had a lot of angry energy to begin with. “Please. I almost died. I’m tired, and I’m scared, and I’m confused. Please don’t fight too.”

There was another moment of silence. Cathy was beginning to reign in everything again and focus back on the case. There was still a lot to figure out, and guilt would only make it go more slowly.

Or maybe someone else would pay for her emotions with their life. Like last time.    
After all, it had come eerily close to happening again. In fact…

Cathy narrowed her eyes at the young police officer.

“So how exactly did you know she was up in the rafters?”

Anna’s face flushed. “I...was following you.”

“Why?”

“Because…”

“Because you’re the murderer?”

“Cathy!”

“Trust no one, Kat. If you haven’t learned that already, you should.”

“I’m not the murderer!”

“Then why were you stalking us?”

Anna mumbled something that Cathy couldn’t hear.

“What was that?”

“My boss told me to keep an eye on you.”

Cathy groaned and rolled her eyes. “I should have known.”

“Well,” said a voice from the other end of the balcony, “I had good reason.”

Cathy whirled around to see Catherine Aragon standing there, looking royally pissed off.

“Parr. With me. Now.”

Cathy rolled her eyes, but didn’t hesitate to follow the police chief into the wings. 

“What the fuck were you  _ thinking _ ?!”

“I…”

“You almost got that innocent girl  _ killed _ !”

“I know, okay?!”

“No, it’s not okay! I asked you to hire an assistant, not murder a poor innocent girl!”

There it was again. The guilt that crept into her mind and refused to leave.

She wanted it gone.

“My assistants need to actually help with the murders!”

“Well you’re not getting an assistant anymore!”

“Well you’re stuck then! Because I’m not working without her!”

“And why is that?”

Cathy was shocked to find tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

It had been three fucking days. 

What was going on?

She blinked them away before Catherine could see.

“Because she’s useful. I work twice as efficiently with her around.”

“Well how does three times sound?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t trust you, Cathy. Not after last March, not after this. I’m hiring Anna to work with you.”

“You got me a babysitter?”

“No, I got you someone to keep you from fucking up like this again!”

“Do you think I’m not sorry?!” Cathy’s shout rang throughout the theatre, coming out louder than she’d expected. “Do you think I don’t know how much I messed up?! Today and last March and just always?! Do you think I don’t know how awful I am?!”

There was silence.

“Cathy, it wasn’t your fault.”

“Oh really? Because I seem to remember everyone in the world telling me it was!”

And with that, she turned and raced through the curtains and out the side door. It was now dark outside, and rain was falling in heavy sheets. It soaked through Cathy’s clothes and made her shiver, but she didn’t care.

She reached in her pocket for cab money, but cursed when she remembered she didn’t have any.

So she began the long walk home as the rain poured down around her.

After what seemed like thousands of years of cold and grey and exhaustion, she collapsed on the steps of her apartment building, only just dragging herself inside the door and out of the rain, shivering and her teeth chattering as she did so.

She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall. She had no idea how late it was, but it seemed to be pitch blaco outside. Then again, that could’ve just been the clouds.

When she opened her eyes, there was a face swimming above her head.

She gasped and leapt up against the wall. 

“Way to scare a woman!”

Her vision cleared. She was face to face with the blonde journalist from that very morning (had it really only been that morning?).

“What the hell do you want?”

The journalist blinked, looking nervous. 

“I just...I wanted to make sure that girl was okay. The one with the pink hair who works with you? She fell in front of that car, and I couldn’t get to her, and I tried but I couldn’t, and she almost died, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her…”

“She’s alive.”

“Oh, thank God!

“What’s your name?”

“Jane.”

“Listen, Jane. I find it  _ very  _ hard to believe that you have a conscience at all when you work in an industry full of the most heartless bastards I have ever met. You want to worry about a girl, go put some good into the world instead of making the lives of people like me a living hell.”

And with that, she turned and walked up the stairs, slamming the door behind her.

What did it take for this day to end?

She sunk into her desk chair as best as she could, which wasn’t very well, because the chair was so hard. She placed her head on the old laptop, hoping it would warm her shivering self.

It didn’t.

“You know, you shouldn’t let yourself get so cold.”

Cathy leapt up from the desk, looking around frantically for the source of the voice.

And then she found it.

Anne was sitting on her windowsill, half in, half out of the rain.

“What the fuck are you doing in my apartment?”

“Relax, I’m not here to push you out of the ceiling.”

“Like you pushed my assistant?”

“I didn’t push her.”

“Well, can you tell whoever did to leave her alone? She hasn’t done anything, she’s innocent.”

“She’s trying to solve the murder.”

“No,  _ I’m  _ trying to solve the murder.”

Anne’s face turned red. “But...they won’t kill you.”

“And why not?”

“Because I’m protecting you.” 

There was a moment of silence. Cathy shivered as she stared into Anne’s glittering green eyes. Maybe from the cold, maybe from something else.

“I didn’t  _ ask  _ for your protection.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“What about protecting yourself? You ever done that?”

“Projecting much?”

“You’re avoiding my question.”

“Oh, like you’re avoiding me?”

“Projection much, stalker?”

“I gave up on protecting myself when I got into this mess.”

Silence filled the room. 

“Ever think of getting yourself out of the mess you’ve made?”

“No. I can’t.”

Thunder rumbled outside.   
“Neither can I.”

More thunder. Cathy turned away from Anne, facing the wall.

“You should leave this case alone.”

“How many times have I told you I’m not going to?”

“That girl almost died today.”

“So?”

“So do it for her. I know you’ve forgotten how to protect yourself, but you can protect this girl.”

“She’s young.”

“She’s in love.”

“In love is a lot.”

“I think we’d know.”

Thunder rumbled again, the loudest it had been. 

Cathy didn’t see Anne leave the window, but she knew when she was gone.

She turned out the light, still shivering, and let the apartment turn dark. 

She made her way over to the couch, sinking into the cushions as her eyes slid shut.

Thank god this day was over at last.

The trouble was, tomorrow was coming for her in just a few hours.

She’d made such a mess of everything.

What was she going to do then?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was angsty!  
> Also, I know you all saw that cliffhanger ending coming.  
> In some ways, I am very predictable.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Swearing, blood, large crowds, loud noises, drugs, poison, mentions of murder.  
> Don't read this fic if mentions of murder is a trigger.   
> Sorry this chapter's so long! I was trying to cram a ton in so I could get to one of my favorite scenes next week!

_ The rain poured down in thick sheets, covering the windows of her car as she drove. She wasn’t consciously sure of where she was going, but somehow she ended up there anyway. She raced up the stairs, faster and faster with every step she took, full of panic and dread. _

_ Her heart stopped when she reached the room. It was a disaster. The windows were broken, the floor was covered in blood, and rain was pouring in. _

_ And they were dead. They were all dead, and it was her fucking fault. _

_ The rain gushed through the windows, soaking her hair. She didn’t care. She let herself become cold. It was the very least of what she deserved. _

“Cathy?”

For the second day in a row, the private eye awoke to find her concerned assistant staring down at her. She groaned. She wasn’t ready to face the girl again. Not after this.

She sat up on the couch, rubbing her eyes, and checked the clock.    
“Kat, it’s seven thirty. You’re not supposed to be here for another half an hour.”

Her assistant sighed, sinking into the couch and looking a little uneasy, which Cathy honestly couldn’t blame her for. 

“Well, I know you aren’t a...feelings person, but I thought, if you maybe wanted to talk about yesterday, we could. Before Anna gets here.”

Cathy groaned as she made her way over to the desk, plopping on top of it. “That’s  _ right.  _ Our babysitter. Because Catherine doesn’t trust us.”

“She isn’t bad, you know. Anna doesn’t always think before she does things, sure, but neither does anyone, really. And she’s got a good heart. That’s what really matters.”

“Good hearts don’t solve murders, Kat. That’s why I gave mine up a long time ago.”

“Is that the real reason why you made me go up into that ceiling?”

Silence fell.

Truth be told, Cathy didn’t know what the real reason was. Her own mind was such a mess that she couldn’t tell one emotion from another at this point. She’d heard things before, from Catherine and many others. About self-preservation to a fault, about pushing people away. Maybe it had something to do with those. Maybe not. It was all too confusing, and Cathy was a detective. She hated confusion. It made her feel so lost.

She really did almost say all of that to Kat.

But the girl was young and naïve. She looked up to Cathy, Cathy could see it clear as day.

How could she tell her just how ruined, how messed up, how lost, she really was.

So instead of letting out a flood, she put up another wall.

“I sent you up here because you need to learn how risky the world is, Kat. You can’t be a naïve little girl forever.”

“I’m not naïve. I may not have hardened, but I’ve been through things you couldn’t even imagine.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Why? We all have secrets.”

“Oh really? Then tell me. What’s your mysterious past you’re so convinced is an enormous deal?”

Kat squirmed uncomfortably in her seat, her face turning red, not the same shade of red she blushed when she was talking to Anna. This red was deeper, signifying pure mortification.

Shame. Real shame.

What could Kat possibly have to be ashamed of?

“It’s none of your business, okay?”

Slightly taken aback by her assistant’s sudden coldness, all Cathy could do was nod.

“Okay.”

There was silence.

“Tell you what. You’re not the only one with secrets around here. I won’t ask you about yours and you won’t ask me about mine. All right?”

Kat nodded gratefully. “All right.”

Relieved to not have to talk about yesterday anymore, Cathy set about scouring over Chloe’s files, looking for something new. At some point, Anna entered the room. She didn’t speak to Cathy, simply came and looked at the files. She knew this wasn’t the time to rehash everything from yesterday. They were both still too raw.

After a while of staring at photos, Kat looked up. She looked more determined than ever to be brave. Whatever past events Cathy had dug up inside her head had ignited something in her. She wanted to solve this case, maybe even more than Cathy did. 

“We have two more people Chloe met with that day. Shouldn’t we be investigating them?”

Cathy sighed as she closed the last file and put it away, moving the memories of yesterday with it. It was time to move on and find the killer.

“You know what, Kat?”

“What?”

“You’re absolutely right.”

Anna cleared her throat from her spot at the other end of the desk, where she was sitting rather awkwardly.    
“Do you want me to...do anything, or…”

Cathy sighed. She didn’t like having Anna around, and she especially didn’t like the fact that Catherine was the one who had put her there, but there was no point in having two assistants and not using them.

“Anna, are you good at sneaking around?”

“Most of the time.”

“What do you mean ‘most of the time?’”

Anna’s face flushed. “Well, occasionally, there’ll be this...thing that happens, and then I get a little less...coordinated.” Cathy noticed that she was pointedly ignoring looking at Kat.

At this, Kat’s face burned bright pink, and she proceeded to knock a stack of papers off the desk, sending them scattering all over the floor. Blushing even more, she bent down to pick them up, only to find herself once again at eye level with Anna.

“Here, let me help you with those.”

“Oh, it’s all right. It’s my fault they’re on the floor anyway. You know how clumsy I can be. Well, actually you don’t, because we technically met two or three days ago, but…”

“No, no, I understand! But it really is just papers!”

Cathy blocked their conversation out of her brain. She’d anticipated this being a problem, but she’d forgotten just how annoying it was to watch them obliviously flirt with one another. It was like that one couple in a television show that you knew were going to end up together, but the television show took four seasons to get them to actually do anything. Yeah, it was like that. Except it was real and people were dying.

She could not watch them flirt all day. Nor could she trust them to sneak anywhere without knocking something over. Which left her with only one real option.

She cleared her throat.

“All right, you two. It’s very clear to me that neither of you even remotely has any idea of how the fuck to focus on anything. But this morning, I need you to actually try. We’re going to go to Oliver and Maegan’s apartments. You are going to get them out of the apartments, and you are going to interview them. Ask about Chloe, what they did that Wednesday, the murder, keep them talking about relevant things, but most importantly,  _ keep them out of the apartment.  _ I cannot have them catching me going through their things.” She took a deep breath. “Are we clear?”

“I’m not supposed to let you do things like break into people’s houses. That’s literally why I’m here.”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Look, Anna. You can do what I say, or you can not do it, deal with me when I’m annoyed, and have to put up with me anyway. Which do you choose?”

After a minute or so of awkward silence, Anna cleared her throat.

“I’m ready to go.”   
“Me too.”

Cathy grinned. This was what she relished about a mystery. The thrill. The challenge. The excitement.   
“All right, then. Let’s go.”

The first stop was the apartment of one Maegan Hart. Unlike Chloe, whose apartment was the most generic, boring apartment anyone could ever think of, Maegan’s apartment was memorable to say the least. She lived in one of those fancy neighborhoods that wasn’t separate from the rest of the world. Instead, it was a little pocket of luxury in the middle of a perfectly ordinary part of town. She didn’t live too far from Chloe, certainly close enough to be the killer.

Cathy slipped into the shadows, a trick she’d gotten quite good at, and made her way down the hall as Kat and Anna knocked on Maegan’s door. Both looked a bit nervous, though that could’ve just been because they were trying (and failing) not to look at each other.

A woman opened the door. She was barely taller than Kat, but she was much more polished. Not that Kat wasn’t polished; she was wearing a perfectly respectable floral jumpsuit, but this woman had on a straight up dark red suit with a pencil skirt. She looked like she worked somewhere  _ very  _ fancy, and since Maegan was a lawyer, Cathy could guess that this was indeed her.

“Are you Maegan Hart?”

The woman looked surprised, but nodded. “Yes, that’s me. I don’t take on cases outside the firm. You’ll have to contact me through them.”

Kat pulled out Cathy’s ID and showed it to her. “That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to talk to you about Chloe Johnson.”

Maegan’s eyes teared up. “So sad. I miss her.”

“Would you mind coming with us to talk about her?”

“I mean, I’m not sure I can help…”

Anna sighed. “Miss Hart, are you aware you’re a suspect in this case?”

Maegan squirmed, looking on edge. Suspicious, to say the least. “I...I didn’t know that, actually.”   
Seeing her pain, Kat moved to put her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Hey, love, I know it’s sad, but you can help us bring her justice. Figure out who killed her.”

Maegan wiped her eyes. “But...I thought she killed herself. That’s why it’s so heartbreaking. She had so much potential.” 

Anna raised an eyebrow. Even from here, Cathy could see she looked skeptical. Good. If she was going to have two assistants, one of them had to be wary of people, and Kat most definitely was not. She was trusting to a fault, and though Cathy had come to somewhat respect her openheartedness, it did prove dangerous when solving murders.

“Miss Hart, our evidence suggests that Chloe Johnson was involved in a struggle before her death. She was murdered.”

Maegan’s hands flew to her face. “I...oh god. No. Who would want to kill Chloe?”

“That’s what we came to ask you.”

Tears began to stream down the lawyer’s cheeks. “Of course. I’ll do anything I can to help.”

“If you could just come with us…”

“Of course. Let me just get my purse…”

The three women soon disappeared down the hall. Luckily for Cathy, in her haste to either actually help or appear trustworthy, Maegan had left the apartment door open.

How convenient. Almost too convenient. 

Either way, she needed to search for information. So she slipped through the door and into the apartment. She hadn’t thought to ask Kat and Anna to warn her when Maegan was coming back, so she had no idea how much time she had. Maybe five minutes, maybe five hours.

The apartment was absolutely enormous. It was two stories tall, with a kitchen, a living room, a television room, and an office on the first level, and a humongous bedroom on the second.

The office seemed like the most logical place to start. It looked exactly like what she would’ve expected from a hyper organized lawyer like Maegan. There were shelves full of law books, neatly organized alphabetically. There was a gigantic filing cabinet that should have been overflowing, yet the files were somehow fitted in perfectly. And then there was the crown jewel of the room, the polished mahogany desk. Unlike most desks, this one was perfectly organized with stacks of papers, pencil cups, and drawers with alphabetized labels. Catherine was the neatest person Cathy knew, and even her desk wasn’t this neat.

She made her way to the filing cabinet and began sorting through the files. Most of them looked like basic records of cases, but she made sure to scan each one as carefully as she could while going quickly. You never knew where you might find information. 

“Ooh, are we going through someone else’s files. That’s illegal, isn't it?”

Cathy whirled around, but quickly relaxed when she saw Anne perched on the desk. Then she tensed up again. Why had she relaxed? This woman was not to be trusted.

Right?

“So is murder.”

“I told you I didn’t kill Chloe.”   
“But you won’t tell me who did.”

“If I do, then I’ll get killed, and there’ll be nobody to protect people like you.”

“But if I know who the killer is, then I won’t need anyone to protect me. Hell, what makes you think I need to be protected now?”

“You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“I stopped needing protection when I started this job.”

“I don’t want you to die. Why is that so hard for you to believe?”

Cathy turned back to the files. “You’re distracting me.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“I figured. Can you at least be quiet?”

“No.”

“Well why the hell not?”

A smile passed over Anne’s face. It was the first smile Cathy had seen on her than was even remotely genuine.

“What can I say? I like talking to you.”

“Well you’re not being helpful.”

“I never said I wanted to be helpful. I said I liked talking to you.”

Cathy tried to ignore the blush she felt spreading across her face. This woman was a threat, not a friend. She was  _ not  _ going to fall for another Thomas. She wouldn’t let last March happen again. She just couldn’t.

“Well, if you want me to talk to you, then you can search the house for me. Then I might consider it.”

Anne gave her a flirty grin. “Works for me.”

And she disappeared into the apartment.

Shaking her head to rid herself of all the confusion, Cathy turned her focus to the last few files. There seemed to be nothing there, so she moved to the desk, where there were stacks and stacks of forms and letters. Papers bored Cathy, they always had. Searching through them was her least favorite part of her job, but she had to do it anyway. 

There was one particular letter that caught her eye. While the rest were printed in an official looking, typed style, this letter was handwritten, though still very neatly, and it had been written with red ink. 

Cathy pulled it out, careful not to smudge the writing, and peered at it.

_ Dear Oliver, _

_ I’m really, really worried about Chloe. As I’m sure you know, her life has really been going downhill lately. She’s struggling at work because her boss is harassing her, and she doesn’t want to get help because she can’t afford it. I keep telling her that she can get a lawyer, but she won’t listen to me. She’s been distant, she hasn’t answered my texts, she hasn’t had fun doing the things she normally loves. _

_ Now, I’m not a psychologist. I’m a lawyer, which of course, you already know, but despite my lack of knowledge, I think Chloe may be depressed. I’m scared she might do something dangerous, possibly even harm herself. _

_ She won’t listen to me. She thinks I don’t understand, but you’re her boyfriend. She loves you. Maybe she’ll listen to you. I’m begging you, please, try to get her to consider getting help. She needs it. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Maegan Hart. _

Cathy raised her eyebrows, resisting the urge to pocket the letter. Maegan couldn’t know she’d been here, not under any circumstance.

Under the letter was an envelope. It was addressed to Oliver Rishkowitz, at the same address the police had given Cathy in his file. What was odd was the red stamp on the envelope.

_ Invalid Address. Return to Sender. _

Hmm. Odd.

Cathy was stopping herself (again) from taking the letter when Anne poked her head through the door. Her entire demeanor, now that Cathy was looking more closely, seemed more cheerful today. Everything yesterday had felt so high-stakes. Perhaps she was glad to be rid of that.

“I looked in the bedroom, the living room, and the television room. Nothing there.”

“Did you search thoroughly?”

“What, you don’t trust me?”

“No!”

“There was a television in the television room. Not much to look at.”

“Just like you.”

“Ha ha. I’m shaking with laughter.”   
“I wouldn’t have pegged you as the sarcastic type.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

Cathy looked up and found herself staring right into Anne’s eyes.

“I think that’s a bit of an understatement.”

And, refusing to look at the woman with the space buns, she pushed through the doorway and made her way into the kitchen. She began going absentmindedly through the drawers, annoyed at herself for letting Anne distract her.

Then her hand touched something that felt suspiciously like a medicine bottle. She pulled it out of the drawer, reading the label quickly.

“What is it?” Anne’s voice echoed across the kitchen. 

Cathy slowly turned to face her. “Opioids.”

She whipped out her phone and dialed, grateful that Catherine had given her the morgue’s phone number when she’d first started working for her. She’d known it would come in handy someday.   
“Hello, this is the morgue. Heather Macnamara speaking, how can I help you?”

“Hi, Heather, my name’s Cathy. I came in a few days ago to look at a body.”

“Well, a lot of people come in here to look at bodies.”

Cathy sighed. “I came with my assistant. She had pink hair. You liked her.”

“Oooh, right! I remember now! What can I do for you?”

“I need information on one of the bodies.”

“Right, that’s Heather D’s job. I’m just gonna transfer you, hang on a sec, HEATHER!”

There was a click.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Heather D?”

“That’s me. What do you want?”

“What do you know about Chloe Johnson?”    
There was a rustling noise on the other end of the phone.

“Chloe Johnson. Age 28. Red hair, pale skin, hazel eyes. 162.56 centimeters tall…” She said this all in a bored tone.”

“I need to know how she died.”

“Oh, okay.” More rustling. “Oh, that’s interesting.”

“What is it?”

“We initially thought she died of opioid overdose, but we’ve gotten some more recent test results, and it looks like she consumed opioids laced with cyanide.”

There was a faraway voice from the other end of the phone.

“What’s cyanide?”

“It’s poison, Heather!”

“Okay, Heather!”

Cathy sighed. “Thank you for your help.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

She put down the phone and went back to digging through the drawers. She dug through countless forks, knives, and spoons. Her hands stung from the sharp objects. She kept digging.”

She didn’t hear Anne leave the apartment, but she knew she was gone. She didn’t know when she’d see her again, but for some reason, she found herself hoping it would be soon.

Her fingers paused as they brushed against another round surface. A bottle. She pulled it out of the drawer and froze, scanning the label.

Cyanide.

Before she could even shove the bottle back into the drawer, she heard voices coming from the hall.    
“Listen, I appreciate you taking the time to interview me about this, but I really  _ do  _ have to get back to work.”

“Could you maybe meet with us again at a later time?”

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you. I loved Chloe. We’d known each other since we were little kids. But by the time she died, she was a mess. I couldn’t save her. No one could.”   
And Cathy saw the doorknob turning. 

Panicked, she raced up the stairs towards the bedroom, completely disregarding putting things away. If Maegan had to know that someone had been in her apartment, she was  _ not  _ going to find out it had been Cathy. She wasn’t going to let that happen.

Entering the extravagant bedroom, she was relieved to see a fire escape on the opposite side of the bed. Taking a deep breath, she began to sprint, using her hands to push herself over the bed, and swung out the window onto the platform. She was already climbing down before she could completely register her plan.

Halfway down the building, she thought she saw a flash of black up on the roof, and just for a second, she stopped, searching for a familiar face and a pair of glittering green eyes. But when she saw nothing there, she simply continued climbing down to the street, where she was met with a pair of assistants, one looking anxious, the other unfazed. 

Kat raced toward Cathy as fast as she could the minute the detective was once again on solid ground. 

“Oh my god, Cathy, are you alright? We tried to stop her from going back into the apartment, but we couldn’t and I just…” She abruptly threw her arms around the private eye. Though Cathy initially tried to pull away, she was surprised to find herself sinking further into the hug instead She’d thought her assistant was still mad at her for what happened yesterday. It was nice to know she still had faith in her, even though she’d lost faith in herself a long time ago.

Why did she even care what her fucking assistant thought?

God, this week was making her lose her mind.

At last, she pulled out of the hug, awkwardly shaking her arms.

“Did you two manage to find any information at all? Or were you too busy ignoring the fact that you live in a romance movie?”

As expected, Kat’s face turned bright pink. “We, uh, we actually did find some information. Maegan talks...a lot, and she thinks she knows everything, but…”   
Anna cut in. “But it certainly seemed like she was more than a little annoyed with Chloe.” She eyed the detective warily. “What did  _ you  _ think?”

Cathy glanced at Kat. Anna was a police officer and Cathy was a detective. They’d purposely taken jobs that were dangerous. Kat wasn’t either of those things. She was a secretary who needed money and would do anything to get it, including dangerous jobs.

Cathy had already put her in danger once, and she’d almost broken.

For Kat’s sake and for her own, she couldn’t put her in danger again. She couldn’t make her assistant the “girl who knew too much.” It was too risky.

So she decided to be vague. “I’d say she’s definitely still a suspect.”

Suddenly, Cathy heard her phone buzz in her purse. She took it out and read it, sighing.

It looked like the surprises of that day were far from over.

She turned to Kat and Anna. 

“We need to go to the scene of the crime.”

They seemed to get across the city in mere seconds. It was only later that Cathy realized it was because Maegan lived so close to Chloe. It wasn’t as though they had far to go.

The three women stepped out of the taxi cab, paid their driver (Kat said ‘thank you’), and then raced up the stairs as fast as they possibly could.    
Entering the apartment with Kat and Anna close behind her, Cathy froze at the sight before her eyes. 

There was a message written on the bed, in something that looked eerily like blood.

_ She Deserved It. _

Chills ran through Cathy’s veins. Even years of being a detective had proven unable to take the fear out of moments like these.

Kat’s hands trembled, tears forming in her eyes. Anna opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by an enormous crowd that had suddenly appeared behind her.

Cathy groaned.

“Journalists.”

Sure enough, there was a pack of people shoving past them into the room, hands full of cameras, notebooks, phones, and pens.

They were  _ loud. _

“Look at  _ that _ !”

“Now that’s something!”

“Front-page worthy!”

“I heard the victim killed herself!”

“And signed this with her own blood!”

“I heard it was the blood of someone else she killed!”

“No, silly, she was a boring little bitch, that’s why this case is so weird!”

“Hey!” As suddenly as they had brought the noise, the crowd fell silent. Cathy caught the face of Jane, the blonde woman who had come to her apartment, in the center of the crowd. She was staring at the message, her mouth widened in an O of shock. 

The reporter at the head of the crowd, a sandy haired man, turned and pointed his finger at Cathy.

“That’s the detective working on this case!”   
For a moment, it was so silent you could hear the people walking outside.

And then the room (metaphorically) exploded. The journalists swarmed at them all at once, holding out microphones, cameras flashing as they came closer.   
“Are you going to solve this case?”

“Was this woman murdered?”

“Who killed her?”

“Weren’t you involved in those deaths last March?”

“Do you work for the police?”

“Where are your credentials, lady?”

Cathy took a deep breath and turned to stare Kat and Anna right in the eyes.

“Run.”

Without hesitation, the three women sprinted down the hall and down the stairs at the end. The journalists, without hesitation, began to follow them.

A door opened to their right as they reached the first floor landing, and a woman poked her head out.

“In here!”

They raced through the door and the woman slammed it behind them, muffling the sounds of raised voices and clicking cameras.

Cathy turned to face the woman standing in front of them. She had pale skin, chestnut colored hair that was plaited in two braids, and was wearing a blue and red plaid shirt with jeans. She was shorter than Cathy but taller than Kat, about the same height as Anna, actually. She was pretty, Cathy supposed, though not alluring like...some people. There was also something familiar about her, though Cathy couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.

The woman stuck out her hand. “I’m Dana. I live here.”

Kat smiled. “Nice to meet you, Dana! I’m Kat, and this is Cathy and Anna.”

“Pleasure.”   
“Thank you so much for helping us!”   
Dana rolled her eyes. “Don’t thank me. Those reporters are like wasps. Ever since that poor girl died, they’ve been swarming around this place like crazy. They won’t give anyone who enters that room a break. So I try to help when I can.”

Cathy cocked her head. There was still something familiar about her. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“You’re the detective working on Chloe’s case, right? I’ve seen you around.”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

The brunette grinned. “No you don’t, but do you know my sister Jenna? She was friends with Chloe.”

“Jenna who goes to the ballet?”

“That’s the one.”

Cathy glanced around nervously. She hadn’t seen Jenna since she’d left her sleeping at the ballet. “Is she here now?”

“No, she went out a while ago. I think she said she was meeting some friends? Do you want me to tell her you stopped by?”

“No!” The three women all spoke at the same time. Cathy forced a smile. “I mean, there’s no need. We just saw her yesterday.”

“All right. She’ll be home soon, but if you’re gonna miss her...” Dana grabbed a piece of paper and began scribbling something down. “Here’s our landline if you need to contact her.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. She was planning on giving it to you yesterday, but she...forgot.” Dana’s voice grew heavier, as though she was purposely not mentioning Jenna’s flightiness. It was some sister thing, Cathy supposed.

Anna peered through the keyhole in the door. “I think they’re gone. For now, anyway.”

Cathy checked her watch just as Kat yawned. “It is getting late. You should be getting home soon.” She moved and opened the door, following Anna back into the lobby. 

Kat turned to Dana again before she left. “Thanks again.”

“No problem!” And with a wave, Dana shut the door.

As she crossed the lobby, Cathy was beginning to sink back into her own thoughts when she found herself standing mere inches from none other than Jenna. Jenna stuck out her chin with a “humph” and brushed past the detective without a second glance, heading right into the apartment and slamming the door behind her.

Anna watched the dramatic woman go with a bemused expression on her face.

“She’s...got character.”

“She certainly does.”

“So what’s our next move?”

Cathy sighed, pacing back and forth across the lobby. “We’ve got all our suspects, and we’ve talked to most of them. What would be  _ really  _ helpful is if we could find a way to hear them confront Chloe’s death without us there. See what they really do.”

“So you want to spy on them.”

“No...well....yeah, that’s exactly what I want to do.” Cathy looked up guiltily and was surprised to see Kat grinning.

“Awesome. Where do we start?”

Cathy frowned. “Kat, you know spying is serious, right? If you get caught…”

She was stopped by the intense look of determination on her assistant’s face.    
“I won’t get caught.”

Anna frowned. “But  _ where  _ can we spy on these people? They all know who we are.”

As if on cue, Jenna’s voice drifted from her apartment door. She was complaining loudly about some perfume at the moment, but it gave Cathy an idea.

“Perhaps little miss socialite can tell us something.”

And as quietly as she could, Cathy crept back across the lobby and put her ear to the door.

“Dana, why can’t I keep that perfume? It’s perfect for me!”

“Jenna, that thing costs thousands of dollars! We don’t have that kind of money to spend on perfume!”

“But I was going to wear it to that party at Wilkins’ Taxi Service tomorrow night!”

Cathy’s ears pricked up.    
“Sis, look, I know you want to impress these people. I do too. They’re being very nice by inviting people who were close with Chloe to their monthly party. But you have so many gorgeous things already. You don’t need new perfume!”

“But what else am I supposed to use?”

Cathy pulled away from the door. The rest of the information she could get from the internet and a few favors.

She turned and almost screamed when she saw Kat and Anna standing behind her, not even an inch away. She shoved them back across the lobby, cursing inside her head.

“You two picked a  _ great  _ time to startle me!”

“Hey, we were only listening just like you!”

“Even so!”   
Kat looked at Cathy. Her eyes glittered in the light of the lobby.

“So is our next step what I think it is?”

Cathy smiled. 

“Depends what you think it is.”

“Well, you know, are we…”

“We’re going to that party.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Swearing, death, mentions of murder, depression, and suicide.

It wasn’t often that Cathy found herself dressed up, standing in front of a mirror on a Friday night, even before she’d stopped leaving her apartment. She’d normally just gone to the pub down the street, and that certainly hadn’t required anything fancy.

She didn’t like it, she determined. If a person was going to put that much time and effort into anything, it should be something like solving and committing murders. She supposed she technically  _ was  _ solving a murder, but staring at herself in the mirror, it sure didn’t feel that way.

She couldn’t look like herself. So she’d shed her usual dark brown trench coat in favor of a sky blue jumpsuit. The pants were light as air and billowed around her body. A black beret was perched on her head, in place of her usual fedora. With her midnight colored, glittering eyeshadow and winged eyeliner, her deep red lipstick, and her ankle boots, she felt like a completely different person.

She never would have spent this much on clothing, shoes, and makeup if Catherine hadn’t been paying for it, but since she was, the detective had made a point of buying the most expensive things she could find.

But at least she now looked somewhat like a normal business employee. The light blue wasn’t too eye-catching, and the jumpsuit wasn’t too over-the-top. 

The goal was to blend in. Not to attract attention. If they attracted too much attention, or any at all, really, someone could recognize them. And then they would be thrown out of the party, or even put in danger if they came into contact with the murderer. Since everyone in the small group of people who had known Chloe would be there, Cathy would bet money on the murderer’s presence. 

But of course, when you were dealing with killers, nothing was ever guaranteed. 

As often happened these days, she was pulled out of her thoughts by a knock at the door. A second later, Kat poked her head in. She, too, looked radically different. Instead of her usual wardrobe of jeans and shirts in various floral prints, she was wearing a knee length dress. It was very simple in shape, just a square neckline and a skirt that flared out a bit, but it was dyed so that it was pure white at the top, and by the bottom of the skirt, it was colored a deep pink. Ombré, she thought the technique was called. 

Kat would have a hard time blending in at the party due to her eye catching looks, but she’d done the best she could. She’d taken her pink hair and hidden it in a coil on the side of her head, under a pink flower. She’d put on shiny pink lip gloss, but no other makeup. She did look pretty, Cathy would give her that. And innocent. Maybe that would come in handy. 

She bounced into the office, looking excited. 

“Do I look alright? I didn’t have a ton of time to find a dress, but I hope this is blend-in-y enough.”

“You look fine.”

“Really?”

“Don’t take it as a compliment.”

But it was clear the girl already had. She perched herself on the desk and stared out the window. The January sky was already dark, though the city was glowing with electric lights from every apartment. 

A few minutes later, there was another knock at the door and Anna entered the room. She, too, was almost unrecognizable without her usual blue police uniform. Instead, she was wearing a deep red suit jacket, a white shirt, and black pants. Like Kat, she’d opted not to wear makeup. She looked a little out of place for a businessperson, but nothing too eye-popping. 

Unless, of course, your name was Katherine Howard.

Cathy checked her watch. At this rate, they would arrive at the party just late enough to slip in unnoticed, but not so late that they caught the host’s eye. Mr. Wilkins, she could tell, was not someone she wanted to cross.

She turned to her two assistants, both looking nervous, one excited, one determined.

“All right, bitches. Let’s get this over with.”

The car ride to the taxi firm was dead silent, all except for two encounters. Kat was sitting next to her, and Anna in front of them, next to the cab driver.   
About five minutes into the drive, Kat leaned over and whispered in her ear.

“Are you going to be mad at Anna?”

Cathy blinked. “What for?”

“For not trying to blend in.”

Cathy sighed. “Kat, Anna is dressed perfectly adequately to blend in.  _ You  _ just can’t take your eyes off her.”

Kat’s face flushed a deep pink. “What? You’re not making sense!”

“You can believe that if you want.”

`Kat leaned back towards the window and muttered something that sounded a bit like “Besides, it’s not like she’ll ever like me that way.” But Cathy couldn’t be sure.

Ten minutes or so later, Anna leaned back and tapped the detective on the shoulder.

“Hey Cathy.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Kat might have trouble blending in tonight?”

Cathy sighed. “Oh my fucking god, I am going to have to keep the two of you apart all night, aren’t I?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Cathy rolled her eyes. “Right. We’re here.”

The second she got out of the car, she turned to them. “Okay, I didn’t want to do this, but you’re not going to be able to focus if I don’t. You are going to go around the party. You are not going to interact with any of the guests. You are going to do your absolute best to hear as many conversations as you can without getting noticed. And you are _ not allowed to talk to one another. _ You may somehow still be oblivious…”

“To what?”

“Doesn’t matter. You two cannot focus to save your lives when you’re around one another. Interpret that how you will.”

And she turned on her heel and entered the party, slipping into the shadows the moment she entered the door.

The party looked like a pretty average work party, at least as much as she could compare it with her limited knowledge of work parties. The lobby had transformed into a dance floor, with a speaker next to the reception desk that was playing classical music. There was a long table laden with food on the left side of the room, as well as wait staff darting through the crowd, serving appetizers on tiny platters.

Behind her, Kat squealed and made a beeline for the nearest waitress. Typical. She should’ve known her assistant would have a taste for tiny appetizers. Truth be told, she couldn’t blame her.

She made her way to the food table and began nibbling thoughtfully on a mini shish kabob. Seeing Jenna and Dana approaching, however, she ducked under the table and prayed she wouldn’t knock anything over.

“This party truly isn't as nice as I thought it would be.”

“Sis, we weren’t even supposed to be invited. Just be happy that we’re here.”

“But  _ this food!” _

“What?” Cathy heard munching. “You mean this mini hot dog?”

“It’s called a pig in a blanket, Dana!”

“Whatever.”

“No, not whatever!” There was a pause. “It’s just...poor Chloe.” Jenna’s voice trailed off into very loud, very dramatic sobbing. 

“Ssh, I know, I know. Tell you what, let’s find a bathroom, yeah, and we can...go cry there. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Their voices disappeared into the crowd, and Cathy, checking to make sure nobody could see her, crawled out from under the table, scanning the room as she did so. Anna was over in the corner, listening to Mr. Wilkins have a conversation with one of his (many) secretaries, and Kat was out on the dance floor, drifting around from cluster to cluster. Neither of them seemed to have attracted too much, if any, attention. So far, so good.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, Cathy caught a glimpse of Maegan, dressed in a deep blue, glittering dress, in deep conversation with a tall man with wavy blonde hair and brown eyes. She leaned against the wall and inched closer, trying her best to go unnoticed. Of course, Maegan had never seen her before. If she had to, she could pull the stranger card. But the stranger card was always a dangerous play. She’d rather not have to go that far.

As she moved closer and closer, she began to hear snippets of their words. She ducked behind a large potted plant and listened. 

“Oliver, I’m telling you, Chloe was depressed!”

“What she was was stuck in a bad situation!”

“She needed to help herself!”

“No, she needed  _ our  _ help! And you didn’t give it to her!”

“At least I can say I fucking tried! Can you say the same?”

“What are you talking about?”

“If you’d done what I’d asked in my letter, Chloe might not have died!”

“I never got any letter!”

“Well I sent it and the post came back saying ‘invalid address.’ So no matter what, you’ve got some explaining to do.”

There was a moment of silence.

“You know, Maegan, it sounds an awful lot like you’re trying to pin this murder on me.”

“It sounds an awful lot like you don’t want to trust me.”

“Maybe I don’t.”

“Maybe you know that Chloe killed herself because of you.”

“Is that really what you think, Maegan? Come on. We all know by now that Chloe didn’t kill herself. Someone  _ murdered  _ her.”

“And you think it was me?” Maegan’s voice was coy, almost laughing.

“That’s exactly what I think.”   
There was another moment of silence. Cathy could feel the anger in the air.

“Well, then, you can think what you want. But you should have answered my letter.” And Maegan stormed back into the crowd, leaving a very confused Oliver behind. Cathy wanted to talk to Oliver, but she still had to interview him, and she didn’t want to blow her cover later on the off chance that he might recognize her face. 

She pushed through the crowd, searching for Kat and Anna, but they were nowhere to be seen. Instead, she found herself standing in the middle of the dance floor.

Suddenly, the music changed to a slow violin piece. The people around her moved, clasping hands, spinning and dipping in synchronization. She caught a glimpse of the reporter, Jane, clad in a black and white a-line dress, dancing with a man wearing a camera around his neck. She could also now see Kat and Anna, dancing together in the right hand corner of the room. Both were blushing heavily and avoiding eye contact with the other.

She could only hope they’d managed to get  _ some  _ work done, but that was the least of her problems. Being alone in the middle of the dance floor was a surefire way to attract attention,  _ exactly  _ the sort of attention Cathy was trying to avoid.

“May I have this dance?”

The detective turned and nearly fell over when she saw Anne standing right in front of her, arm outstretched. Hesitantly, Cathy took her hand, and they began to dance. Anne was wearing a tight, glittery dark green shirt, and big black pants that billowed even more than Cathy’s jumpsuit, so much so that they looked like a long skirt. 

Anne spun her around as they followed the crowd to the right. “Something tells me you weren’t invited to this party.”

“Something tells me you weren’t, either.”

“So what are you doing here, then?”

“Solving a murder. You?”

“Now  _ that  _ I can’t tell you.”

“How is that fair?”

“I never said it was.”

Cathy spun Anne around and the crowd began to circle to the left. 

“I want to tell you, you know.”

Cathy raised her eyebrows. “Oh, you do?”

Anne’s eyes were full of sincerity. Cathy wished she could tell if it was an act.

But her eyes were gorgeous, shining in the light. And she looked amazing in that shade of green.

Anne sighed. “I’d give anything. But if I did, you’d die. I couldn’t live with that.”

“Bold of you to assume I won’t die anyway.”

“Not so sure I could live with that, either.”

Anne spun, pulling Cathy into a dip, then encircling her waist and pulling her close so that their faces were only inches apart. 

Cathy suddenly found it very hard to breathe. She pulled away from Anne, flinging out her arm and twirling them around.

“What do you mean?”

“The world’s worse without you in it, Cathy. Whether you believe it or not.”

There was another pause. The music quieted. The dancers slowed even more.

“And you?”

“Me?”

“Is the world better or worse without you, Anne?”

There was another pause.

“I’m not sure.”

Cathy spun, pulling Anne to the left. They were all the way on the side of the room now, almost to the point of being separated from the crowd.

“Who are you, Anne?”

Anne’s fingers went slack in Cathy’s, almost causing the private eye to lose her rhythm. 

“Oh, Cathy. In some ways, I’m just a normal girl.”

“And in others?”

Anne sighed, her eyes filling with tears. “One day you’ll find out who I am, Catherine Parr. Completely. And I dread that day. For both of us.”

The music sped up again, and Anne spun Cathy behind a pillar. They were now out of sight of the rest of the crowd.

“I think my world’s a little worse without you in it, Anne.” The words were out of Cathy’s mouth before she could stop them.

The music began to get louder and louder, and as it did, Cathy wrapped her arms around Anne’s waist, pulling her into a dip, then back up, once again pulling her close.

This time, their faces were less than an inch apart.

The music swelled. Thunder rumbled outside from a storm Cathy hadn’t even realized was there.

And then Anne took her hand off Cathy’s waist and reached up to cup her face in it.

And she kissed her.

Electricity coursed through Cathy’s body. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling. It was pure adrenaline, power, danger, and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of love.

They broke apart, shock spreading through Cathy’s body.

And then the lights went out.

Screams echoed through the crowd. The music stopped. Cathy tried to make her way back into the crowd, but she couldn’t see, and everyone was running about in complete chaos. She didn’t see Anne leave her in the darkness, but she knew when she was gone.

She grabbed a torch from the wall and turned it on, frantically pointing it around the room, looking for any sort of clue or order.

Mr. Wilkins’s voice echoed over the crowd.

“Stay calm, ladies and gentlemen! This was...uh...completely intentional and not at all probably sabotage! No need to panic!”

Of course, the crowd panicked. The shrieks got so loud, they made Cathy’s ears ring. 

And just as suddenly as they had gone out, the lights turned back on. The room suddenly seemed too bright, as though the sun was sitting right there before her eyes.

Blinking black spots out of her vision, the first thing Cathy saw was Kat and Anna, frozen together in an awkward dip position.

She was surprised to hear herself laugh. After everything that had happened that night, it was almost nice to see one thing she’d been expecting.

Well, as much as she’d have liked to see  _ that  _ play out, she couldn’t.

Under the cover of the still noisy crows, she marched over and clapped her hands.

“Right, lovebirds. Enough staring. We need to figure out what just happened.”

As it turned out, they didn’t have to wait very long. Just as Cathy finished her sentence, a scream sounded from the center of the room. 

Immediately, the crowd raced towards the source. Cathy tried to push her way through, but it was no use, even with her, Anna, and Kat together. So she just had to wait for the crowd to clear, growing more and more annoyed and anxious with every shriek.

At last, a slot opened in the crowd and Cathy raced through it, followed by Kat and Anna. Somehow, Kat saw it a split second before Cathy did.

She screamed.

Cathy drew in a sharp breath.

Lying there in the center of the floor was Maegan Hart.

She was dead.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Gunshot wounds/bullet wounds, mentions of shooting, actual shooting, gunfire, blood. loud noises.

The entire room seemed to freeze and time seemed to stop progressing as Cathy stared at Maegan’s body, lying there in the center of the floor. All she could focus on was that black hair, that glittery blue dress.   
Just minutes ago, Maegan had been yelling at Oliver. She’d been acting suspicious. She’d been yelling about a letter that had never been received. And now she was lying dead on the cold, hard floor.

Tentatively and feeling the crowd’s eyes on her, Cathy dropped to her knees and slowly, carefully, rolled the body over so that Maegan was facing upwards. She drew back with a gasp.

There was a bleeding bullet hole right in the center of Maegan’s heart. The music had been so loud, Cathy must not have heard the gun go off. Nobody had. 

But whoever had shot had clearly had very, very good aim. 

Cathy stared at the wound in the lawyer’s chest. Although she’d seen Chloe’s body at the morgue, she hadn’t seen an actual murder since, well...since ten months ago. She wasn’t sure she liked the way it now made her stomach churn and her eyes water. That was new.   
Stupid March. It really had ruined everything. 

But she couldn’t think about that now. Last March hadn’t killed Maegan. Someone had gotten their hands on a gun.

As quickly as the crowd had frozen, they quickly dissolved into noise and chaos. People were shrieking, running towards nothing, banging into one another.

Suddenly, from somewhere much higher up, a gun fired. Once. Twice.

The crowd screamed and ran for the door. As quickly as she could, Cathy leapt on top of the food table, scanning the people racing away for her.

Both Jenna and Oliver were nowhere to be seen. Neither was Mr. Wilkins.

The gun fired again, sounding closer.

As she leapt off the table, she caught a glimpse of Kat and Anna running towards her, both red faced and breathless, Anna looking full of adrenaline, Kat practically shaking with fear. 

“What do we do?”

Cathy surveyed the crowd. “Get them all out. Make sure they have a way home. And then get away from here as fast as you possibly can.”

“What about you?”

Cathy sighed and glanced towards the elevator. She really hoped her boots were made for running.

“I’m going to find that killer.”

“You can’t!” shrieked Kat. “You’ll die!”

“It’s all part of the job, Buttercup.”

Kat’s eyes filled with tears. “I thought I told you not to call me that. I told you that ages ago.”

“Well, congratulations. It’s your nickname now. Now get out of here before your sorry ass needs even more saving!”

With tears still in her eyes, Kat turned away and sprinted into the crowd, Anna following close behind. It didn’t escape Cathy’s notice that the two were holding hands as they ran, though neither of them seemed to even know they were doing it.

Whatever. She could lament their extreme obliviousness later. For now, she had a killer to catch. 

She turned her back to the fleeing crowd and began sprinting up the stairs.

Another gunshot sounded. It was closer this time, but still far away. It sounded as though it was coming from the roof.

Cathy sprinted even faster, passing row after row of offices. Her feet stung. Her boots were not made for running. She felt blood between her toes. Her beret had fallen off somewhere on the stairs, and her curls were going everywhere. She didn’t care.

At long last, she reached the rooftop. The wind whipped in her face as she opened the door, making her pants billow out behind her and her hair start flying. She imagined she looked like one of those people in action movies.

On the far side of the balcony stood two figures. As she made her way over, one of the figures leapt over the edge, firing a gun loudly as it jumped. Cathy raced over and looked down, but there was nothing but shadows. To make matters worse, she hadn’t gotten enough of a look at the figure to identify it at all. 

She turned sideways, and was simultaneously surprised and not surprised to find a dazed looking Anne leaning against the wall. Looking closer, Cathy realized she was clutching her arm. Beads of red blood were seeping between her fingers.

Without even meaning to, Cathy found herself dropping to the ground. She had nothing to place over Anne’s would, so she just laid her hand on top of the green eyed girl’s, applying pressure and hoping it was enough. 

“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me who killed that woman.”

“Not a chance.” A faint smirk flickered over Anne’s lips.

“Did they shoot you?”

Anne winced as more blood spurted from her injury. “Yeah. I’m alright.”

“You don’t seem alright. You’re bleeding. A lot.”

“Careful there. You might show some sympathy.” Even with her eyes half-closed in pain, Anne’s voice still managed to ooze sarcasm. 

Cathy felt her face grow hot. “Private eyes feel. We just don’t use our feelings.”

“Ever stopped to ask yourselves why?”

“Because we’re playing with fire, Anne. We can’t get burned. People’s lives are at stake.”

“Seems like people get hurt anyway.” The look in Anne’s eyes said it all; she was talking about more than just tonight.

Cathy sighed as she slumped against the wall, still pressing on Anne’s arm. She felt blood soak her hand, but she kept pressing. “Let me put it this way. What happened the last time you used your feelings?”

“I got shot.”

Cathy froze. “But...that’s right now.”

“It is.”

There was a pause.

“Why did they shoot you.”

“I told you why I was playing with danger. I was protecting you.”

“And how were you doing that?” It had somehow escaped Cathy’s notice, but somehow, their faces were only inches apart yet again. 

Anne’s green eyes locked onto Cathy’s brown ones. “That killer knows who you are. They’ll kill you if you’re not careful. I knew they were here. I knew they were going to shoot.”

Cathy inhaled a sharp breath. “You pulled me behind that pillar on purpose.”

“Paid the price, too.”

But Cathy barely heard her. Hurt was coursing through her body and she didn’t know what to do with it. When she spoke again, her voice was soft, almost trembling, but with a dangerous undercurrent.

“What about that kiss? Was that just you  _ protecting me _ ?”

Anne’s eyes glittered, maybe from the starlight, maybe from tears, Cathy couldn’t be sure. 

“I...I’m not sure.”

“You’re not  _ sure _ ?”

“I’m already walking a line, Cathy! I’m playing a dangerous game. If I die, you die.”

“What makes you so sure I can’t survive on my own?!”

“If I hadn’t been there tonight, you would’ve been shot!”

Cathy felt rage filling her body. What had she been  _ thinking _ ?! She never should’ve let this mysterious stranger into her heart. She’d only been setting herself up for pain.

She really should have known better. 

She turned and began to walk back towards the door, trying to stop the tears that were beginning to prick at the back of her eyes. When she spoke, her voice wasn’t trembling anymore. All that was left was the anger and the pain.

“You manipulated me. You used me. You nearly got me killed.” She turned to face Anne as she opened the door back to the building. 

“You can bleed to death out here for all I care.”

And she slammed the door shut.

She was in a haze as she walked back down the stairs. She wanted to put the green eyed mysterious girl, but all she could think of was the blood on her arm and the bullet hole in Maegan’s chest.

God, how could she have been such an idiot.

_ Tonight,  _ she vowed as she descended the final flight of stairs.  _ I can wallow for one night. Tomorrow morning, it’s back to the case. _

As she stepped back out, shivering, into the cold night air, she was surprised to hear a honk from a car on the side of the road. It wasn’t a cab, and she had no idea where it had come from. But it was most definitely flashing its headlights at her. 

She rolled her eyes. It was probably just Anna and Kat being stupid and reckless and everything she’d tried to teach them, especially Kat, not to be. 

She should take her own advice. She hadn’t exactly been a paragon of caution, especially when it came to a certain mysterious woman.

Shaking the last of the thoughts of Anne from her mind, Cathy made her way over to the car window, peering into the driver’s seat. To her surprise, she found Jane Seymour, the reporter, sitting there. Seeing the detective, she eagerly rolled down her window. As she did, Cathy caught a brief glimpse of her cameraman asleep in the backseat.

“What the hell do you want?”

Cathy expected her anger to catch the blonde woman off guard, but she seemed unfazed. Or maybe she was already just too shaken up. After all, she was in tears.

“I wanted to give you a ride home.”

“Why?”

Jane sighed. “Because, Detective, you told me to put some good into the world. I intend to do that.”

“By driving me home?”

“By helping you.” Jane paused, tears still streaming down her cheeks. “I know I’m not a detective or a police officer, but I want to help how I can. You were right. I became a journalist so I could expose corruption, but I’ve been going along with a corrupt system this whole time. I need to do something different.” She looked the exhausted detective in the eye. “So please, just get in the car.”

Cathy looked around. It was cold. And late. And there was possibly a murderer still lurking around.

She got in the car. 

As Jane drove and the lights blurred by the window, Cathy couldn’t help but be distracted by the journalist’s tears.

“Why are you crying?”

It was, perhaps, an insensitive question, but Cathy had never been the type to beat around the bush. There wasn’t time, not when there were deaths piling up all around you. That was never more apparent than it was tonight. 

Jane sighed and looked at Cathy. “It’s almost funny. No matter how long I work in this job, no matter how many of these things I see, there’s just...something about them that always gets to me. Every time. These people are  _ dead,  _ and all we’re ever doing is making it a story. There’s something  _ really  _ wrong with that.”

Cathy cocked her head as she stared at her. “Interesting.”

“What?”

“You’ve seen pretty much the worst of the world, and yet you’ve retained a conscience.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

Cathy leaned back against the seat. “Depends what your job is.”

“You sound proud.”

“That’s because you remind me of someone. If she were in your shoes, well...I don’t think her conscience would be going anywhere.”

“And yours?” Jane asked as they pulled up to Cathy’s apartment building.

Cathy sighed as she exited the car. “Mine disappeared a long time ago.”

“I don’t think you’re completely without hope.”   
Cathy laughed, a harsh, bitter laugh that seemed to match the bitterness of the cold January night. “Is anyone without hope, really?”

She disappeared into the building before she could hear Jane’s answer. All she saw was the reporter’s car driving off into the night.

This had been quite an evening.

As she curled up on her couch under a heap of blankets, Cathy found herself plagued by thoughts of that night.

Maegan and Oliver arguing.

Maegan’s letter.

Jenna leaving the party to go “cry.”

Maegan lying dead on the floor.

The bullet wound in her chest.

And the matching wound in Anne’s arm.

The realization that Anne had been manipulating her all along.

The harsh reminder that opening your heart was never a good idea.

But most of all, Jane’s question kept popping up in the back of her head.

Was anyone really without hope?

Was Anne?

Was she?


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Swearing, mentions of death, shooting, and addiction.  
> So sorry for this hiatus! I can't promise it'll end soon. I get distracted. I get tired. But I can promise that I'll try. And you know why? Because of you. All of you have been such a huge part of my salvation during this crazy pandemic, and seeing that my work actually manages to bring some of you joy has been such an amazing experience. So I try to write, even if I can't. I write for myself, yes, but I also write for all of you. So thank you for sticking with me. It means a lot.  
> Anyway, enjoy the chapter! It's twice as long as usual and mostly angst and rants, but I feel like I needed to write it before I move back into the mystery-solving action. Don't worry, that's coming soon:)  
> ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Unsurprisingly, Cathy woke with a pounding headache. That was what always happened to her when she heard gunfire right before she fell asleep. It wasn’t ideal for when she had to hide in dangerous neighborhoods while undercover, but it was the case nonetheless.    
She’d never been very good at undercover anyway. People had always said she was so cold that she attracted their attention. Honestly, she couldn’t blame them. But it was better to be cold than to break on a job. If you broke, it could put everyone in danger. Even if it seemed like they were as safe as could be. 

But that was a problem for another time. 

Making her headache even worse, her cell phone began to ring  _ very loudly  _ from its place on the coffee table. Groaning as she pulled her messy curls back into a ponytail, she stole a glance at the screen. She groaned again at the sight of at least ten angry texts from Catherine. The last thing she wanted to deal with this morning was the angry, controlling bitch that was the police chief. Nonetheless, she had no choice if she wanted to get paid and get her landlords off her back. She’d been lucky, since they were Americans who only came to London on vacation, instead of being her neighbors, but they could only go  _ so  _ long without getting paid before they started to get  _ really _ annoyed. So she needed money. 

She glanced at the texts, the first text she’d gotten in...well, a long time.

_ WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOU?! _

_ WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME YOU WENT UNDERCOVER?! _

_ YOU PUT YOUR ASSISTANT AND MY TRAINEE IN DEEP DANGER, NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT YOU WERE IN A SHOOTOUT! _

_ Wherever you are, come to my office the SECOND you get this.  _

_ You’re scaring us. _

_ Get your sorry ass down here or you’re in deep trouble. _

Cathy smirked at the texts. Part of her wanted to wait a little longer, just to make the police chief squirm a bit. She had, after all, left her nearly homeless for ten months, and only taken her back when it benefited  _ her.  _ It would be more than justifiable. 

But she needed her goddamn money. More importantly, the case was starting to spark an interest in her, the way that the best cases did, and she didn’t have time to waste fighting with Catherine when there was a murder to be solved. 

So, somewhat reluctantly, she began to slip back into her usual demeanor, washing the pain of last night away as she scrubbed off the last of her smudged mascara. She didn’t have time to deal with Anne and all of the emotions that came with her. 

She just wasn’t going to see her anymore. She’d shut her, and those pesky feelings, out. There was no place for them in her mind. Not anymore. It was simply too risky.

Despite all the complexities still lingering in the back of her mind, it was nice to get back into her brown trench coat and fedora. It made her look (and feel) intimidating, something that was key when you were talking to potential murderers. 

Plus her normal black shoes were  _ infinitely  _ more comfortable than those boots. She  _ still  _ had blood between her toes.

Nevertheless, sore toes and all, she made her way out of the apartment building, hopped onto the bus, and headed towards the police station. It was 6AM, and the sky was still dark, but strangely, she didn’t feel tired, although she did plan on finding some coffee  _ very  _ soon.

The bus was relatively empty, which wasn’t entirely unusual for a Saturday morning, and the few seats that were taken were filled by sleepy looking passengers holding coffee. The only exception was one person at the front of the bus. They were very clearly  _ that  _ annoying person; the kind that’s up at the crack of dawn every morning, runs for ten miles, eats kale and grains all day, and does it all with the most annoyingly perky smile. If they’re  _ really  _ annoying, they also have a high paying job that they’re incredibly good at. Cathy had always hated those people. Generally, everything they had had been handed to them on a silver platter. And they were generally  _ so  _ nice it was annoying. There had to be  _ something  _ wrong with them. If there wasn’t, it just wasn’t fair to the rest of the world.

As often happened, the detective was abruptly jolted out of her thoughts as the bus screeched to a stop. Cathy quickly stumbled off, barely catching glances from the other passengers around her. Of course, the blonde person in the front of the bus gave her a cheery wave and a dazzling smile. 

_ And  _ they had gorgeous blue-green eyes?  _ Unfair! _

The nice thing about people like that, though (and, Cathy supposed, most people), was that they were soon gone from your mind after you left them. When you were a detective, you trained your brain to see everything, but only when it was necessary. As such, things like pleasantries and politeness often went out the window.

But it was better that way. People were less likely to love you, and then you were less likely to love them.    
Most of the time. 

Cathy wasn’t exactly  _ nervous  _ as she entered the police station. More like...there wasn’t really a good word for it, she supposed. She knew something bad was about to happen, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. It wasn’t that she was scared of it, she just didn’t want it to happen.

Words could be really fucking hard sometimes. Cathy remembered there had been a writer in her college dorm who had often put entire paragraphs into her stories about how hard it was to find words. The writer had called it a healthy coping mechanism for the pressure that she put on herself. Cathy had called it projecting her own emotions into her stories to avoid dealing with her problems.

Hang on. That writer’s name had been Jane, and she’d looked an awful lot like Jane the journalist who kept following Cathy around.

But that was a question for another time. For now, she had to face the wrath of Catherine. 

As she entered the lobby of the station, she suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu. It wasn’t a sensation she experienced often, but she’d been here just five days ago (though this entire week felt more like a lifetime), so she supposed it made sense.

The receptionist was still sitting at the desk, looking just as anxious as he had on Monday and Tuesday. He glanced up at her, but his attention was still clearly on his phone. 

“Good morning. What can I do for you?”

Cathy rolled her eyes, not at anything in particular, just at the fact that she was even in this situation.

“I’ve been summoned by the police chief from Hell.”

The man rubbed his hands together nervously. “Do you mean Catherine?”

“The one and only.”

The man’s phone buzzed, and he stared down at it as he continued to talk to her. “Uh huh. Just give me one second and I’ll call her in.”

Cathy sighed. She didn’t want to be here for longer than she had to because the receptionist was too busy staring at his phone to do his job.

So she leaned forward and snatched it out of his hand. Probably not the kindest thing to do, but she was running on limited sleep and  _ far _ from chipper.

“Evan, isn’t it?”

The man nodded. Cathy glanced at the phone. She suddenly felt like a teacher, reading forbidden notes passed from child to child in the back of a classroom. 

“Uh-huh, and who’s Connor?”

Cathy didn’t need her detective skills to determine the answer from Evan’s blushing face and nervous glances down at the desk.

She gave the phone back. “Enjoy your boyfriend. And get me my appointment.”

“Right away!”

As Evan talked rapidly into his phone, Cathy took a moment to survey the lobby. It looked rather sleepy, even for a Saturday morning. Perhaps Catherine was trying to spare the other police from having to hear her yell, though that seemed like a rather unlikely prospect.

At long last, the chief herself made her way through the doorway. Unlike Cathy, who still felt slightly shaken and very zombielike, Catherine looked as though she’d stepped off a Hollywood set. She was wearing pants today, which was a little out of character, as the chief liked to make a point by proving that women could wear feminine clothing and be feminine and still kick ass, but the pantsuit was bright yellow, so Cathy supposed the bright color made a big enough statement on its own. 

Catherine marched right over and stood next to the bench. Cathy stood up, but despite the fact that she wasn’t even short, Catherine still towered over her. 

“Parr.”   
“We’re back to Parr again, are we?”

“I don’t have time for any of your little detective mind games. Listen to me  _ very  _ closely. What you did was not only against my orders…”

“You never told me  _ not  _ to do it!”

“Not  _ only  _ was it against my orders, it was also reckless and it put countless people in danger!”

“I put no one in danger except myself and the people working for me, Catherine!”

“Well that’s new for you, isn’t it?”

Silence suddenly filled the lobby. 

“I’m sorry.”

“No you’re not.”

More silence, broken only when Catherine cleared her throat.

“Why don’t you come into my office, Cathy?”

For once, Cathy followed the chief without uttering a word. The inside of the station was just as empty as the lobby, occupied by only a few officers hunched over desks here and there.

It seemed as though there was a sleepy, quiet haze over the room. Even Catherine almost looked like she was tiptoeing. 

The second the office door slammed shut behind her, Catherine spun around at breakneck speed, making Cathy have to duck and fall right into her desk chair. Crap. She’d forgotten just how fast the police chief was.

Catherine sat down on top of her desk, positioning herself so that she was directly above Cathy, in a position of power. This was a common technique Catherine had taught Cathy to use in interrogations because it made the people you were talking to feel more small and powerless.

Well, Catherine was going to have a problem, because Cathy refused to let it work on her. Catherine leaned even closer, an icy smile on her face and a glint of anger in her eyes.

“So,  _ Cathy _ , wanna explain what the hell happened last night?”

Cathy smirked. If the police chief was going to be obnoxious, then she was going to be obnoxious right back. It was what she deserved, anyway. She may have been Cathy’s source of income, but she had also ruined her entire life. Every time the private eye almost started to forgive her, she said something else that reminded her not to trust her. Or anyone, for that matter.

“What is there to explain? Didn’t your little police pet tell you everything? Or was she too busy making love eyes at my assistant?”

“Don’t bring Anna into this. She’s been nothing but helpful to you!”

“She  _ stalked  _ us!”

“On my orders! You wanna blame me for that, fine! But she’s been a good assistant to you! And you almost got her and everyone else at that damn party killed!”

“I didn’t do  _ anything  _ except spy!”

“I could have gotten you invited. Then you wouldn’t have had to hide.”

“But then people would have noticed us. The goal was to go unnoticed.” Cathy smirked. “A little detail  _ you  _ seem to have forgotten.”

“Well it would have made it less dangerous!”

“It wouldn’t have made the shooter go away!”

“Well I would have known about it!”   
“You  _ said  _ you weren’t my boss! You said I could have this case for myself! Why do you care so fucking much about what I do?!”

“Because you may be really good, Cathy, but you have a terrible track record!”

The temperature in the room seemed to suddenly drop by about 50 degrees.

“And what do you mean by  _ that _ ?”

Silence. Catherine wasn’t saying it, but they both knew exactly what she meant.

“Look, I know last March was a disaster, okay? I’m not an idiot.”

“Never said you were.”

“But that didn’t mean you had to take everything away!”

“Yes, Cathy! Yes it did! You killed two innocent people! You almost got yourself killed, and the murderer would have escaped if we hadn’t showed up!” Catherine’s demeanor softened slightly. “Look, everybody makes mistakes. But we work a dangerous job. And you made that mistake because you got cocky and overexerted yourself. That was your fault. And it’s not the kind of thing we forgive easily around here. Not from high-ranking people we rely on.”

“So why bring me back?”

“It’s like I said last Friday. We had a case overload. We had some cases we couldn’t even work on. You may have screwed up, but you’re the best around here.”

“So I’m only useful when you need me, huh?”

“Yes. That’s how this job works.”

Catherine’s blunt honesty would have surprised someone else. But Cathy had been expecting it. Deep down, she’d already known the answer to  _ that  _ question. She’d lived it.

“So you never even wanted me back in the first place, huh?”

“That’s not what I…”

“You know, a hell of a lot of people seem to have made a pastime of manipulating me lately!”

“Cathy…”

“And guess what I learned from that, Catherine? Nothing! Because you’ve already taught me not to trust people. You taught me that when you took me in, even when I was a drug-addicted mess, and then threw me out the second I did one thing you didn’t like. You wanna call me out for overexerting myself? Fine! But don’t say I don’t have good reason to trust no one. Because that reason has always been there.” She paused, looking directly into Catherine’s eyes. “I’m staring right at it.”

Silence fell over the room.

“I’m sorry I accused you of messing up the party.”

Cathy blinked. With all their history, Catherine had still managed to throw her a curveball. “The shooter was shooting at me. At least for some of the time.”

“Doesn’t matter. Whoever killed Maegan also vandalized Chloe’s room. You can’t stop them until you catch them. Until then, nothing they do is your fault.”

“Depends how you look at it.”

“Fair enough.”

More silence.

“If you knew the shooting wasn’t my fault, why call me in here? Why get so angry?”

Catherine threw her hands back, exasperated. “You know, for a private eye, you sure are an idiot sometimes!”

“What the actual fuck?!”

“I mean it! You basically ran through death’s door in front of your two assistants, one of which has come to care deeply about you in case you hadn’t noticed! And after you send them away, not just from the party, but from the _ building _ , you disappear! No calls, no texts, nothing for all of us to go on! Nobody even saw you leave the goddamn building!”

“What are you saying?!”

“For heaven’s sake, Cathy! We were  _ worried  _ about you!” Catherine took a deep breath, panting. “ _ I _ was worried about you.”

Yet another wave of silence filled the room.   
“Oh.”

More silence. This was really getting to be a lot.

Blushing in embarrassment, Catherine cleared her throat and began to shuffle through papers on her desk. It was as though their conversation had never happened, and the more Cathy thought about it, the more she agreed that it was probably better not to talk about it. Not when there were cases to be solved and deaths to be stopped.

“So, detective, you ready to get back to your case?”   
Cathy exhaled,  _ finally _ feeling the intensity of the previous night start to seep out of her. She would feel like that again, and it would probably be sooner than later. But not now. 

“Yeah. I think I am.”

Catherine smiled, almost fully, though not quite. “Good. Your assistants are asleep in my offices.”   
“What are they doing there?”

Catherine gave her a glare. “Well, they were so worried after you disappeared last night that they came straight here to report the shooting. I let them wait at Anna’s desk, and they fell asleep waiting for the news that you didn’t bring.”

Cathy felt her face flush. Yeah, she’d only met Kat five days ago, and Anna even more recently, but she’d never meant to scare them. She wasn’t  _ that  _ heartless.

So she made her way over to Anna’s desk to find Anna sleeping in her chair with Kat curled up in her lap. Both were still wearing their outfits from last night’s party, and Kat still had the pink flower in her hair. It didn’t escape Cathy’s notice that their fingers had intertwined, either in their sleep or just beforehand. But she found herself smiling unexpectedly at the sight.

Slowly and gently, she reached out and tapped Kat’s shoulder.

The young girl bolted upright, startling Anna as she did so. Both of them looked around frantically for a split second before their eyes landed on Cathy, who gave an awkward wave, unsure of what to do.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long, because Kat leapt out of the chair and threw her arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.

Rather than pulling away like she expected to, Cathy sank deeper into the girl’s shoulder. She even felt tears pricking the back of her eyes. She hadn’t been hugged in...well, it seemed like forever.

This was turning out to be a strange morning.

Kat pulled her closer and whispered into her ear. Cathy couldn’t see her face, but she could tell her assistant was crying.

“Don’t  _ ever  _ scare us like that again.”

Cathy laughed. She’d only known Kat for five days, but she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed her. “No can do, Buttercup.”

If only this moment with her guard down could last. But a glimpse of Catherine shuffling through files reminded her that time was of the essence.

She pulled back, turning to Kat and Anna. “Right, you two. Go home. Shower. Sleep in a bed. Put some normal clothes on. Meet back at my office at 3:30.” Her voice was already filtering out the emotion from mere seconds ago. Funny how easy it was for her to do that.

But despite the sudden change in Cathy’s voice, Kat grinned. “And what are we doing after that?”

Cathy smirked. “That depends. Are you ready?”

“Always.”

Cathy smiled something halfway between her usual guarded smirk and a real smile. It was a start.

“Well then, we’re going to investigate one Oliver Rishkowitz.”


End file.
